tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55704869288561075552024-02-20T03:26:52.621-05:00Adverse EffectsAn outlet for Well-Versed to ramble about books, movies and foreign dramas.adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.comBlogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-18381949699872603912013-12-31T02:14:00.000-05:002013-12-31T02:14:51.526-05:00Progress Report: In a Good Way Episodes 1 - 7<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Don't you love it when you stumble across a really good drama purely by chance? Well, that's how my love affair with <b>Lego Li </b>and <i>In a Good Way </i>began last week. I was lamenting the stack of unfinished end-of-year assignments I had yet to complete at work and, naturally, procrastinating getting some of it done at home by scrounging around for a new drama to watch.<br />
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I'd just decided to drop <i>Golden Rainbow</i> when the makjang got to be too much and Mr. Li just looked <i>so </i>handsome in the poster for IaGW that I <i>had </i>to see what it was all about. The first five minutes into Episode 1 and I was hooked.<br />
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As always, you can watch <i>In a Good Way </i><a href="http://www.dramafever.com/drama/4339/In_A_Good_Way/?utm_source=hasoffers&utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=Adverseffects&utm_campaign=affiliate&offer_id=12&aff_id=234" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<b>The story so far...</b><br />
It's 1995 and best friends LIN JIA EN (<b>Kirsten Ren</b>) and ZHENG REN WEI (<b>Jay Shih</b>) have grown up together in the countryside, one of them dreaming of a bigger, better world beyond their small town life and the other depending on those dreams to take her to new places. As best friends, Jia En always figured she and Ren Wei would be together their entire lives, so when he's accepted to university in Taipei and she isn't, it's more of a shock than anything else. Never mind that it was Ren Wei's fault she wasn't accepted and must now take the college entrance exams again while she waits out the year until the new cycle.<br />
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Motivated by her need to be at Ren Wei's side no matter where he goes, Jia En follows him to Taipei (where her parents also live) under the pretense of studying for the exam. This is when she meets LIU SHAN FENG--nickname LIU CHUAN--played by Lego Li, who becomes her first big city friend. He helps her out in a time of need, landing them into potentially scandalous waters when the rest of the school finds out she spent the night in his dorm room.<br />
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In addition to these three leads is the last leg of our love square, Liu Chuan's old friend and Ren Wei's current lady love, BAI XUE FEN--nickname BAI XUE--played by <b>Smile Weng</b>. The kids begin a journey of adventures through college, accumulating an awesome group of friends along the way and running into their own series of adolescent issues, like trying to discover the identity of an online friend, making a name for yourself in a school of strangers, and being rejected for a position in that club you really wanted to join.<br />
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<b>What's good about it?</b><br />
Everything! I can't really think of anything terrible to say about the show, and have found even the 90-minute episodes too short at times. There's something special about the relationships being portrayed and the way the actors play their parts that make you forget you're just watching a drama.<br />
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<b>So, why do I like it so much?</b><br />
I think my favorite part about IaGW is that the whole story is told from under a sheen of reminiscence--as a way of looking back on your past so fondly that all the memories, even the bad ones, have a feeling of inherent nostalgia about them. There's that feeling of "I've been there!" and "That happened to me!" that comes with remembering a bygone era and realizing you're not the only one who's had to suffer through it that makes the show worth watching.<br />
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But it's not just the tone that makes it so good, it's the characters as well. The relationships between the kids and their friends aren't written with a heavy hand (though I'd argue that I was worried about Ren Wei and Jia En's interactions being handled with broad strokes in the beginning--that's been fixed by now), and are so pure and low key that they're all intensely believable. It's that type of falling in love that happens so subtly that you're not even aware anything has changed until you're completely head-over-heels.<br />
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Additionally, I think the production has done a good job of doing the impossible--creating a slice-of-life romance that still has a sense of urgency about it. Because the story is told from the perspective of college-age kids in the 90s, everything that happens to them, and their reactions to these events are magnified appropriately. One argument with a friend can feel like the end of the world when you're 20 years old, and confessing to your crush can seem like you're putting your entire life on the line. For the characters of IaGW, life is taken one day at a time, and they live with the promise of forever stretching out before them.<br />
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<b>Any problems?</b><br />
Not yet--nothing too irritating. And that NEVER happens.<br />
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<b>The Verdict</b><br />
Although the conflicts are juvenile and sometimes tedious, as in the case of the fight in Episode 5, the themes are relatable and moving, which is part of the addictiveness of this show. It's been probably a good year-and-a-half to two years since I last watched a Taiwanese drama, but I'm glad I picked this one up since it's proven to be a good watch so far. I know it's early yet, and there's a lot that could go wrong between now and the end, so I'll put off holding my breath and just enjoy the ride for now.<br />
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If you're looking for something sweet and low-key to watch, definitely check this one out. You won't regret it.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Image Credits (<a href="http://www.soompi.com/" target="_blank">1</a>)</i></span>adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-91809447584266452492013-10-13T18:25:00.001-04:002013-10-13T18:25:32.999-04:00Unemployed Romance: Episode 1 Summary/Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Friday dramas are a growing trend in the Korean drama landscape. What was once a night for news, documentaries and variety television has now started to become filled with prime time drama slots that are free from the heated ratings competition of the rest of the week. The second such drama that I've been exposed to comes in the form of <i>Unemployed Romance</i>, starring <b>Lee Young-ah </b>as down-and-out writer IM SEUNG-HEE and her ex-boyfriend KIM JONG-DAE played by <b>Namgoong Min</b>.<br />
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You can check out this first episode of <i>Unemployed Romance </i>at DramaFever, <a href="http://www.dramafever.com/drama/4323/1/Unemployed_Romance/?utm_source=hasoffers&utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=Adverseffects&utm_campaign=affiliate&offer_id=12&aff_id=234" target="_blank">here</a>!<br />
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<b>Episode 1 Summary</b><br />
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We meet Seung-hee in a relatively trying time of her life--she's employed (but just barely) by a production company that produces only B-list TV shows like <i>Love and Demise</i>, and <i>Kill Your Husband</i>, and lives with a roommate (MOON SUN-JOO, played by <b>Bae Seul-gi</b>) who has vastly surpassed her in terms of career success. <br />
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We later find out that Seung-hee was primed for the success that Sun-joo now enjoys, but her dreams were dashed when an accident (seemingly caused by ex-boyfriend Jong-dae) put her out of commission and unable to finish her first manuscript. She knows that Sun-joo only offered to share her apartment with Seung-hee so she could keep an eye on her, and the girls have a somewhat tense relationship with each other.<br />
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Seung-hee also has an amusingly rocky relationship with her older sister, who alternates between being perpetually angry at her husband and nagging Seung-hee about her poor career prospects. Regardless, Seung-hee relies on Unni for new drama ideas, and ventures out to find a new source of gossip when Unni has nothing new to share. In doing so, Seung-hee runs into a gossipy ahjumma who lives in her apartment building, and they become fast frenemies.<br />
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Soon after, on her way home one night, Seung-hee happens to meet hotty lawyer SONG WAN-HA (<b>Seo Joon-young</b>) who follows her to her apartment. Hilariously, she thinks him a creeper and bats him with her purse before giving him a chance to explain that he's here to meet with Sun-joo. Unfortunately (or, fortunately?) Sun-joo is caught up with something at work and asks Seung-hee to keep Wan-ha company until she can make it home.<br />
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The pair of them end up at dinner together, and Wan-ha seems oddly taken by Seung-hee by the end of the night. Still, his responsibilities lie with Sun-joo, so even though a nagging feeling has him convinced that he's met Seung-hee before, Mr. Geom-sa (prosecutor) ditches her at the end of the night to head to the coffee shop for a second time with Sun-joo.<br />
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Meanwhile, Seung-hee's boss, who'd gone to a casino to do research for a new show about gambling addictions becomes an addict himself. Seung-hee gets a call from her coworker that the crew for one of their shows is walking off the set after not being paid as Seung-hee faces loan sharks at the door of her apartment who are looking for her boss. The gangsters leave her with their business card and a promise from Seung-hee that she'll call if her boss resurfaces, and her coworker tells her their company has likely gone bankrupt.<br />
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<b>Episode 1 Review<br /></b><br />
I like this show. That's my verdict after nearly a week of sitting on it and thinking over this first episode. It has its (numerous) flaws, but there's a quirky vibe here that appeals to my rom com radar.<br />
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Still, after this first episode, I would have liked to see a little more, yah know, <i>romance</i>. Well, not even romance. I'd have liked to see a little more of Namgoong Min than just a shot of him riding an escalator.<br />
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Clearly something went wrong between him and Seung-hee, though we don't know what, and it seems to be the case that he was the reason for the accident that made her unable to finish her first manuscript. I like the dynamic here, that he blames her for being the cause of his misfortune, but she blames <i>him </i>just as much. It'll be fun to see how everything plays out if they ever... you know, actually <i>meet each other again</i>. Ughh. Pacing is not this show's strong suit.<br />
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You'd think, with the added pressure of having only 10 episodes to convey the story, the writer would want to speed things up a bit, but no. Still, I'm enjoying the interaction between Seung-hee and Wan-ha and look forward to that in the upcoming episodes. It's awful that I'm falling for the second lead already, but that is the nature of the beast when your leads don't share a single line of dialogue through the first hour. <br />
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I know. At this point I'm just being whiny. Overall, I'd give this first episode like a solid 5.5 or 6 out of 10. It was funny enough that it kept me watching, but it dragged in all the wrong places and I'm hoping that isn't something that continues to happen in the weeks to come.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Pictures via (<a href="http://www.hancinema.net/" target="_blank">1</a>) </span></i><br />
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<br />adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-64792780357615806272013-09-22T22:53:00.002-04:002013-09-22T22:54:37.011-04:00Nosebleeds, coffee, and logic games, oh my!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This post was meant to be posted agessss ago, but I never got around to putting it together, so it ended up as a note in the sidebar (which... I don't know that anyone reads those, anyway...).<br />
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Regardless!<br />
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I'll be gone until October 5th because of the dreaded soul-killing beast known as the LSAT, i.e. the Law School Admission Test. I haven't studied NEARLY as much as I should have, but with work and yah know, life, the motivation factor has been hard to maintain.<br />
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Wish me luck. Let's hope I make it out with my sanity still mostly intact.<br />
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I'll be back by the 6th or 7th, depending on whether the test <em>actually </em>kills me or not.adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-5461748953757140562013-06-24T21:23:00.002-04:002013-06-24T21:23:17.730-04:00Itazura na Kiss - Love in Tokyo: Episode 1 Recap<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9082318146/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-16-15h12m55s174 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-16-15h12m55s174" height="281" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5517/9082318146_14db7f4077.jpg" width="500" /></a>
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I'm kind of a masochist, I think. I got a job last week (yay!), but now I'm picking up a show to recap. One that's nearly done airing. Why? I dunno. I couldn't tell you. Probably because I hate having me time. -__-<br />
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Watch this episode at <a href="http://www.dramafever.com/drama/4257/1/Mischievous_Kiss%3A_Love_in_Tokyo/?ap=1/?utm_source=hasoffers&utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=Adverseffects&utm_campaign=affiliate&offer_id=12&aff_id=234">DramaFever</a>!<br />
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<b>Episode 1 Recap</b><br />
We open with our main character AIHARA KOTOKO (<b>Miki Honoka</b>) writing a letter to someone in the dead of night as she listens to a radio program called Kiss in Tokyo. She stays up late trying to finish off the letter, and then remembers there's to be a meteor shower that night, and so opens her window to make a wish--that her feelings will be accepted her crush, Irie-kun.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9082339012/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-16-14h42m45s239 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-16-14h42m45s239" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5544/9082339012_abcc83f293.jpg" /></a></div>
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It's D-Day the next morning and Kotoko arrives at school with determination. She waits by the bike racks for Irie-kun to arrive, and then prepares to approach him when he finally does.<br />
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Inevitably, her thoughts travel back to the Entrance Ceremony on the first day of high school, when she'd seen Naoki for the first time. He'd been the one to make the opening speech, and she'd fallen in love with him at first sight. She'd kept an eye on him since then, but she wasn't sure whether he even knew she existed, let alone that she had feelings for him.<br />
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It's the moment of truth by now, and Kotoko approaches Naoki at the school gates to give him her letter. She stars up at him, at little starry-eyed, holding out her letter and he doesn't even bother to make eye contact with her as he tells her, "I don't want it," and walks away.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9082320800/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-16-15h09m14s29 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-16-15h09m14s29" height="281" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5332/9082320800_db0d7647a9.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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Kotoko's left standing alone, arms still outstretched, as people file into school, all staring at her lonely form. The only thing that can make her move is the wind, which blows her letter out of her hands and right under Naoki's feet. He steps on it without batting an eyelash.<br />
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Unfortunately for Kotoko, the gossip mill reigns supreme at their school, and the news about her harsh rejection has already made the rounds by the time she steps foot into the courtyard. But her best friends are there to have her back (kind of) and try to make her feel better.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9082310466/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-18-22h48m07s72 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-18-22h48m07s72" height="281" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3674/9082310466_62f08581a1.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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They're not very good at their job, pointing out to Kotoko that she should've expected rejection from a guy like Naoki--everyone and their mom knows he's virtually untouchable. Plus, the disparity between their classes (both socially and intellectually) is almost too huge to bridge. Naoki's ranked number 1 in the school and is handsome and tall, while Kotoko spends her days in Class F, at the bottom of their year.<br />
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Kotoko argues, though, that she's persistent and tries hard, both qualities that Irie-kun should appreciate. She has faith that her feelings will eventually reach him. But Jinko and Satomi put the breaks on this train of thought quickly--doesn't Kotoko know? Naoki's a woman-hater. He's swarmed by fangirls on a daily basis but has never even spared a single one of them a second glance.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9103685851/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-18-23h37m02s248 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-18-23h37m02s248" height="281" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2887/9103685851_9cb6397213.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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By the time they reach their classroom, Kotoko's dream of marrying Naoki has been sufficiently grounded and her expression is morose as she takes a seat. It's not long before the real hurricane hits, and it's in the form of BFF IKEZAWA KINNOSUKE (<b>Yamada Yuki</b>),or Kin-chan, as Kotoko calls him, who's madly in love with Kotoko and can't stand the thought of anyone rejecting his princess.<br />
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He's incensed by the idea that even a smart guy like Naoki could turn down Kotoko, and wonders why she doesn't just switch gears and like him instead. This is apparently a daily thing for them, because Kotoko shuts him down noncommittally, but then readily accepts the food he's brought for her (he doesn't know it yet, but eventually Kin-chan is going to want to be a chef).<br />
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Kinnosuke considers Irie-kun's rejection as a form of a challenge for him to step up to the plate and win Kotoko's heart. Why else would he turn her away like that? This is the last nail in the coffin for Kotoko, and she finally admits that it was probably dumb of her to think she and Naoki could work out. She'll stop trying and get over him.<br />
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Just as she finishes this declaration, a yawn overtakes her. Jinko and Satomi can't believe her timing, but she admits that she stayed up the entire night writing Naoki's letter. She was so nervous about getting all the spelling right, she even checked up on the kanji characters of her own name just to be sure.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9105905222/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-18-23h45m05s216 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-18-23h45m05s216" height="281" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2869/9105905222_87647b2a84.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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It's the weekend before they know it and moving day for Kotoko and her father, who just bought a house. Everyone arrives to help and the party's in high spirits as they unload the moving van. Dad revels at finally being able to provide for his daughter the way he's always wanted, and even tears up.<br />
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In the end, it's Kotoko who stops them from going back into the house for lunch, citing a strange noise as the reason. Sure enough, when she looks around, she notices a shining light in the sky--a shooting star. It's a small thing, about the size of a softball, but it knocks a hole into the roof of the house as it hurtles down, and the entire house collapses from the impact.<br />
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This is, of course, a strange enough story that it lands Dad on the evening news. Poor Dad. He can't seem to wrap his brain around the fact that an asteroid, of all things, was the cause of the house's demise. It couldn't be something normal, like an accident or a fire, could it?<br />
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The next day at school, Kotoko is once again the butt of all the rumors going around, as somehow, everyone has found out about her house. The reason becomes evident as she approaches the school gates where, along with his two lackeys, Kin-chan is collecting donations for the Aihara House Reparation Fund.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9129147263/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h23m53s147 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h23m53s147" height="281" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7333/9129147263_dc57fa4d38.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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Naturally, Kotoko's not too thrilled about this and yells at Kinnosuke to stop. Kin-chan doesn't understand why she's upset, and when Naoki approaches them, he begins to berate him for making Kotoko feel like crap the other day. All this bad stuff that's happened to her in the last few days is as a result of the chain reaction started by Naoki rejecting her. It's all Naoki's fault.<br />
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Naoki and Kotoko both have a little more common sense than Kin-chan and argue that it can't be Irie-kun's fault that a meteorite decide to make its home in the Aihara house. Even so, Naoki's seems to tire of arguing about this any longer, and pulls out a couple of notes from his wallet. He holds them up in Kotoko's face, asking, "If I give you this money, will you stop talking to me?"<br />
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Kotoko, angered by his sheer moxy, slaps his hand out of her face and reams him out in front of the whole school. She wonders how she could have liked a person like him for two entire years, and asks him whether he even has any friends, considering his attitude issues. She's got plenty--ones who are there for her when she needs them most. With friends like that, who needs help from Naoki?<br />
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Ever unflappable, Naoki chuckles sardonically and walks away, leaving Kotoko fuming in his wake. Jinko, Satomi, and Kinnosuke are all flabbergasted by her sudden burst of energy. <br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9131348044/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h24m26s225 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h24m26s225" height="281" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5491/9131348044_90fac6766c.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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By chance, Dad's college friend, Iri-chan, sees the interview he did on TV and they get a call from Iri-chan one night, insisting Dad and Kotoko come to stay at his house until they can find a better place to live. Dad's grateful for the offer, and the next thing they know, they're moving into their temporary home.<br />
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As they pull up outside, Kotoko notices a sign with the name "Irie" on it, but figures it's a common enough name that it couldn't possibly have anything to do with the Irie that she knows. They're led inside by Dad's friends, and meet little brother Yuki in the foyer.<br />
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He's about as friendly as Naoki, and brushes off Kotoko for being the dummy that she looks like. It's not until they've all settled down for snacks that Yuki's older brother finally gets home. Mom refers to her eldest son as "onii-chan," so it's naturally a shock for Kotoko when Irie Naoki himself appears before her to make his greetings to her and her father.<br />
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She's shell-shocked as they sit there, unable to believe her luck that she should be moving into Naoki's home. Naoki refuses to acknowledge her existence, even as Kotoko stares at him unflinchingly.<br />
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On the other hand, Mom is totally stoked to find out that Kotoko and Naoki attend the same school. She wonders out loud whether they're in the same class, and Naoki answers cheekily, "Our classes aren't very close to each other, but recently, we met under some interesting circumstances, isn't that right, Kotoko-san?"<br />
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Kotoko doesn't really know how to reply but to say, "Well... uh, uh-huh."<br />
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Eventually, Mom drags her upstairs to go see her new room, which is decked out in pink and stuffed animals galore. She'd always wanted a daughter to dress up in pretty clothes and decorate her room with, and now with Kotoko living with them, she's finally got that chance. Kotoko finds a kindred spirit in Mom, considering her own mother died when she was little, and the pair of them commiserate together.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9129096487/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h32m59s228 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h32m59s228" height="281" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5530/9129096487_e95625ef3a.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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But, as will become practice, Naoki crashes the party to be his usual killjoy self and notes out loud that what is now Kotoko's room used to be Yuki's. He doesn't say it outright, but it's clearly a finger pointed in the Aiharas' direction, which makes Kotoko consider that she might have inconvenienced the Iries by moving in like this. It also explains Yuki's apparent dislike of her.<br />
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Mom is quick to assure Kotoko not to feel uncomfortable about onii-chan's rude words--their home is her home and she should treat it that way She leaves Kotoko and Naoki along after this, telling Naoki to help Kotoko organize her stuff as she leaves.<br />
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Naoki moves into the room to do just that, but that's the last straw for Kotoko and she rushes forward to grab her bags out of his hands. But in her haste, one of the bags falls to the ground, its contents spilling out over the carpet. Among the contents, the confession letter that Kotoko had written to Naoki.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9129089857/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h34m07s141 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h34m07s141" height="281" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2892/9129089857_a11bf22c56.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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Perceptive as always, Naoki spots it and decides to turn the knife a little bit: "Oh yeah. That's right. There's no reason for me to have to help you. I don't care whether you live here or not... just stay out of my business."<br />
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He leaves her with these words, and Kotoko wonders to herself, "If the probability of getting hit by a shooting star is one in ten billion... I wonder one in how many billion the probability is that a girl ends up living with the boy who rejected her? Is it the beginning of something special? Or..."<br />
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The next morning, Kotoko readies herself for school and then heads downstairs for breakfast with the family, giddy at the fact that she's sitting across from Naoki eating at his dining table with him. She stares at him curiously as he reads the paper and drinks his morning coffee, reveling at her own good fortune.<br />
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Eventually, Naoki heads out, and Mom suggests Kotoko go with him, since she doesn't know the way to their school from the Iries' house yet.<br />
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Like a good schoolgirl, Kotoko follows him out and starts to walk beside him, just happy at the chance. Killjoy as usual, though, Naoki asks her not to walk so close, and to maintain at least a 2m distance at all times.<br />
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Kotoko scooches back appropriately to give him his space, but Naoki isn't quite done making his intentions clear. He wants to put her in her place once and for all, and his truly assy side starts to come out.<br />
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This going to school together thing is only so long as Kotoko needs in order to remember her way, he says. And <i>obviously</i>, she should tell NO ONE that they live together--he'd rather avoid all the gossip if people at school were to find out. He makes it clear once and for all that he absolutely <i>hates </i>stupid girls.<br />
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He leaves Kotoko fuming to hersefl, and she vows that she'll make him pay for the things he's said.<br />
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<b>Comments</b><br />
So, here we are. At the end of our first hour and our hero's already rejected our heroine twice. I like that, in this version, Kotoko seems to have a fairly sensible head on her shoulders. Sure, she's crushing on Naoki like mad, but there's something to be said about the fact that she repeatedly curses herself for having this infatuation. At least she <i>knows </i>that Irie-kun is a jerk and doesn't just like him blindly.<br />
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It happens to the best of us--liking someone who's an asshole and wondering to yourself why you do. It just proves Kotoko's human fallibility a little bit. She's dense academically, but she's a reasonable character who is self-aware, and that's something to appreciate.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9105892794/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-18-23h51m26s188 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-18-23h51m26s188" height="281" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5499/9105892794_d6b0123a42.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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I mentioned this in my progress report, but this incarnation of ItaKiss is a win in my book, and I'm attributing that more and more to the writing and directing. This story has such a potential to be executed with a heavy hand (and it has been in the past), but this team does a fantastic job of turning the dial down a bit and smoothing over the rough parts of the story to make it sensible and real, which I thought was impossible.<br />
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They take all the loud and incongruous moments from the 1996 version and pair them with the deftness of the Korean drama to create something entirely fresh and, most importantly, <i>subtle</i>. We'll see it more in later episodes, but I rewatched the old J-dorama a couple of weeks ago (God knows why...), and realized how much work it must have taken to slow this show down and concentrate on the best parts of this story.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9129073075/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h37m20s25 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h37m20s25" height="281" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3763/9129073075_c6e93785a3.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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Mainly it's the relationship between Kotoko and Naoki I like, because that always seems mishandled. The acting is done appropriately here which helps <i>immensely</i>, but the way the characters are written together is what makes the real difference. In the old J-dorama, Kotoko cannot exist in and of herself, and the same with Oh Ha-ni from the Korean version. Their worlds revolve around the Naoki character so much that they don't have anything for themselves at all.<br />
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The difference here is that while Kotoko exists for Naoki in a large sense, if we were to take him out of her life, she would still exist, and she'd do pretty well for herself. She's got the spunk and street sense to get by in the world, which neither 1996 edition Kotoko nor Oh Ha-ni had much of.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9129108365/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h30m57s38 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h30m57s38" height="281" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2891/9129108365_5b8122ed85.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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Now I will say that when I watched the Korean incarnation of this show, I liked Oh Ha-ni a lot. I still like her, but not because of her character so much as the way <b>Jung So-min </b>portrayed her. She was lovable because Jung So-min made her so. That's why this version is also different. Here, it's not because of Miki Honoka's brilliant performance so much as it's the way she's written that makes me like her.<br />
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Okay, enough with the babbling. I could express my affection for this show for days on end, and that has largely to do with my bias against the other versions of this story, for which I also apologize. I doubt I will ever be able to judge this solely on its own merit, without comparing it to previous adaptations. Even so, I can probably say with a lot of confidence that this show, even as a standalone, is pretty damn good.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97693335@N07/9129078491/" title="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h35m55s202 by Wellversed4, on Flickr"><img alt="vlcsnap-2013-06-23-23h35m55s202" height="281" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5546/9129078491_20b343fa05.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-79394307834770344782013-06-13T17:20:00.001-04:002013-06-13T17:23:23.357-04:00Switch Girl!! Episode 2 Recap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r577/wellversed4/Switch%20Girl%20Episode%202/vlcsnap-2013-06-10-00h26m29s236_zps5b879b16.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r577/wellversed4/Switch%20Girl%20Episode%202/vlcsnap-2013-06-10-00h26m29s236_zps5b879b16.png" width="544" /></a></div>
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Wow, talk about delays. Sorry this has taken so long, but the last semester of college really got in the way. Now, considering I'm unemployed, I have plenty of time to watch dramas and write recaps (hopefully), and the second episode of Switch Girl!! is not a bad way to start my (hopefully short) vacation.<br />
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This episode doesn't disappoint, and shows the format of the series pretty well--mostly episodic with a couple of larger arcs thrown in at the end. Today's dilemma involves saving Nika's innocent friend from the clutches of a playboy.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
<b>Episode 2 Recap</b><br />
We open today's episode with an introduction to the Japanese concept of Time Sales, which is similar to sales in America wherein certain items are on sale for a limited amount of time. This is like a sporting event to the obaa-sans in the city, who gather outside the story early in the morning in an attempt to get their hands on groceries at sale prices.<br />
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While fighting off the obaa-sans, Nika drops a potato. And who should pick it up but Arata himself. She sidles up beside him to find out what he's doing here (buying lunch for himself). Mom and nee-chan notice him before Nika knows what's happening, and start to ask embarrassing questions like, "Is he your <i>boyfriendddd</i>?" which isn't helped by Nika referring to him informally. They invite him to come over for lunch, to which he readily agrees, and Nika frets over the coming afternoon as they walk home together.<br />
<br />
She wonders why he agreed to come over. Is it because he wants to use her secret against her? She fantasizes that he'll probably blackmail her until she's got nothing left to live, at which point she'll have to become a hostess and fend off perverts.<br />
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Arata overhears her fretting and assures Nika that he hasn't got the tiniest bit of interest in her or her lifestyle. He explains that his reason for accepting her mother's offer was because he wanted to eat a home-cooked meal.<br />
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When they get home, Mom leads Arata straight into Nika's messy room, where he finds (among other grosser things) rank barley tea and pubic hairs lying around. Nika gets defensive when he notes that her taste isn't at all ladylike, but he goes on to assure her, "It's okay. It suits you well." Nika wonders to herself why he's being so nice, and jumps to the wrong conclusion--does he want to sleep with her?<br />
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This is further exacerbated by him taking a seat on the bed, and she's quick to explain that they can't jump the gun like this--her family's just outside the door and she's not as easy as he seems to think. Arata stares at her like, "What are you talking about?" so Nika sighs and takes a seat beside him.<br />
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As they sit there, she notices his profile and thinks to herself that he's really quite handsome when he's not hiding behind his horrid glasses. Along that train of thought, she asks him why he feels the need to hide his face.<br />
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Arata explains that it's probably the same reason why Nika hides her "Off Mode"-- because it would change people's behavior toward him if he didn't. He figures that wearing his glasses makes him relatively invisible to other people, which is more comfortable, and asks Nika quietly to keep his secret to herself.<br />
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Nika wonders whether his reasoning also has to do with the fact that he hates women, and she begins to question if that's why he doesn't like her. Then again, she figures, she's not all that girly. Her thoughts eventually get the better of her, and Nika begins to notice Arata's handsomeness all over again.<br />
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He sure does smell nice, she thinks, and starts sniffing him like a dog before she can stop herself. Eventually, Arata's thoroughly freaked out and gets up to leave--figuring it was a bad idea to come over in the first place. Nika rushes to stop him but slips on one of the many things lying around her room.<br />
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She lands on top straddling him, hand under his sweater, as his hand comes up behind her and pulls down her pants. This is how Mom and nee-chan find them seconds later, and fret at having interrupted. Nee-chan makes the observation that Nika must like it on top, and Mom chimes in that she always likes being on top too. Nika whines at them to stop, bouncing up and down on poor Arata, making him even more uncomfortable. Haha.<br />
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Later that night, Nika walks him out to the elevator, offering up some leftovers that Mom packed up for him. Arata thanks her, and admits that her house is loud, but entertaining. Nika realizes that when he goes home, he's probably alone and starts to offer, "If it's ever lonely eating by yourself..." but stops before she can finish.<br />
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Arata catches on and assures her, "...then I'll call you. Next time, it's my turn." And indeed, Arata arrives home to a dark and empty house. He stares wistfully at the picture frame in the corner that holds a portrait of his family--only, his mother's face is blackened by marker so you can't see it anymore.<br />
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Nika worries over him the next day at school having been unable to sleep the night before. Nino teases that she's probably interested in him, which Nika denies vehemently. Still, she can't seem to stop watching him, and follows him to the roof when he goes up there for lunch.<br />
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She swaps his bread for her bento and wonders aloud why he always eats alone. He should eat in the classroom like everyone else so that he can make friends. This irritates Arata, who tells her to mind her own business--he's not in the business of making friends, and if that's all she came to tell him, she should just leave. He swaps their lunches back and walks off, leaving Nika pissed at his coldness.<br />
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Back in the classroom, Nika fumes to herself about the encounter, bewildered that Arata could have been so nice the night before and so mean today. Her friends come over to invite her to an after-school goukon, with one of them telling Nika about her chance meeting with a cute boy that morning on her way to school.<br />
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He'd invited her to hang out after school and they'd exchanged phone numbers. The guy had asked her specifically to bring Nika along when she came to the karaoke bar that night. Thinking about Arata's cold rebuff, Nika agrees right away to come on the group date. She loudly announces that, after all, she's been thinking about getting a boyfriend lately, and then stomps off.<br />
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Arata doesn't care a wit, but Nino approaches him after the girls are gone. She asks him whether he knew what Nika's nickname was in primary school. As a result of her being a little chubster when she was little, Nika was called "Oonita" after a professional wrestler. She was teased by everyone, including the boy she liked, and when that little boy started dating the cutest girl in the class, it had motivated Nika to change.<br />
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She lost all the weight by middle school and those who hadn't known her previously fell head over heels for her. Nika managed to find herself a boyfriend at last, but all was not well because she wasn't able to hide her Off Mode personality and got dumped immediately. By high school, she'd managed to perfect her On Mode and started being able to hide her true self entirely.<br />
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Meanwhile, out in the hallway, Monkey Boss overhears the nerd boys talking about the goukon and starts making plans with her lackeys to crash the party.<br />
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So that night at the goukon, Satochi's date proves to be vapid and shallow as expected, and sidles up next to Nika despite being on a date with her friend. Nika tries to draw the guy's attention back to Satoshi, but for every question she asks him, like "What is your type?" or "Who would you go out with?" his answer is always, "Nika."<br />
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Later, on her way to the bathroom, Nika overhears the asshole in the bathroom bragging to his friend about how he's nearly got Nika in his pocket--to commemorate the 50th notch on his bedpost he'd wanted to bed a more challenging girl. The asshole tells his friend to take the other three girls in Nika's party--they're not that great looking, but they seem pretty easy so it won't be a problem.<br />
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That's the last straw for Nika. As they zip up and turn to head for the sinks, she douses them with a bucket of cold water. She insults his manhood, and as he lunges for her, he slips on the water and falls on his ass. Nika raises her foot to kick him where the sun don't shine, but stops at the last second, looking down on him with murderous eyes.<br />
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She berates him for trying to crush the innocence of girls who are just looking to find a little love, and tells him not to group them as being easy. If he ever hurts one of her friends again, she threatens to let every girl in town know about his evil ways. The boys cower with fear before her and can only stare as she tells him to pay the bill and walks out.<br />
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When she gets home that night, Nika stops at the mailboxes to check her mail, fuming about the asshole all the while. Arata walks into the room, wanting to check his own mail and muses that the goukon must not have gone as well as she wanted to. Nika tell him to mind his own business, and she doesn't notice him come up behind her until he reaches into her mailbox with a manila envelope in his hand.<br />
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She freezes at the close proximity and turns around to face him. He tells her, "You don't have to try so hard. There might be someone who likes you just the way you are." Nika doesn't even have time to process his words before he's walking into the elevator. Teasingly he tells her, "See you... <i>Oonita</i>."<br />
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She smiles to herself after he's gone, once the words finally sink in, "The way... I am?" She turns back to the mailbox and notices the envelope. Inside is the container her mom gave to Arata with the leftovers. The note on top reads, "It was delicious." Nika grins, staring down at the post it.<br />
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<b>Comments</b><br />
This was a good starter episode for a show that's less than three hours total. We have to dive right into the conflict without wasting any time, and so pretty quickly it becomes apparent what Arata's central storyline is going to be: his mommy issues.<br />
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We had our normal wacky fun in the second half of the episode, but a couple of key things happened in the first half: first, Arata said the magic words. It's obvious at this point that he doesn't necessarily have The Love for Nika yet, but it's a hugely massive thing for him to look at her, at her lifestyle and say, quite cavalierly at that, that it's okay--it suits her. He does it again at the end of the episode, after finding out Nika's history. But the first time has more of an impact because he says it while being none the wiser.<br />
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The second key thing that happens is that because of his acceptance, Nika's heart begins to move in his direction. Until now, she's seen one side of him: assy. But it says something about his character that, no holds barred, he's willing to accept her as the person she is. And Nika realizes that.<br />
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We're well on our way to bringing these two lovebirds together, so it's just a matter of time before the sparks start flying.<br />
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<br />adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-15196100853959636342013-06-10T18:55:00.000-04:002013-06-24T21:38:06.842-04:00Progress Report: Itazura Na Kiss ~ Love in Tokyo Episodes 1 - 10<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirfYCRZa24anSlz9mRlLCOxs79DkhnNptZKbAYp95mFBKX-cA60dAqn8sRvpx8IusZSfWsKW4yIzD_OapYN9-IWuS2XKNMdtVcanEvjIoSJ3r_6KrYMVTsirhMuPYqKgxkQn3QfqicwsA/s1600/Itazura_na_Kiss-Love_in_Tokyo-p2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirfYCRZa24anSlz9mRlLCOxs79DkhnNptZKbAYp95mFBKX-cA60dAqn8sRvpx8IusZSfWsKW4yIzD_OapYN9-IWuS2XKNMdtVcanEvjIoSJ3r_6KrYMVTsirhMuPYqKgxkQn3QfqicwsA/s640/Itazura_na_Kiss-Love_in_Tokyo-p2.jpg" width="458" /></a></div>
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I never thought I would see the day that I'd be excited to write about this series, but dramas have proven me wrong time and again in the past and this is no different. This particular remake of the manga of the same name has turned out to be a fresher and more likeable take on the classic story than either of the other versions I've seen.<br />
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You can watch <i>Itazura Na Kiss ~ Love in Tokyo </i>on <a href="http://www.dramafever.com/drama/4257/Mischievous_Kiss:_Love_in_Tokyo/?utm_source=hasoffers&utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=Adverseffects&utm_campaign=affiliate&offer_id=12&aff_id=234">DramaFever</a>!<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b>The story so far...</b><br />
Aihara Kotoko, by way of a wayward asteroid, moves into the house of her father's college buddy, Irie, who happens to be the father of Kotoko's crush Naoki. This is the same Naoki by whom she'd been rejected when she tried to confess her feelings at school.<br />
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In addition to this abnormal housing situation, Kotoko must deal with Ikezawa Kinnosuke, her best friend, who is as ardently in love with her as she is with Irie Naoki.<br />
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There's not much of a story arc overall--more of just the laundry list of foibles that the kids go through as they transition from the last year of high school into their first year of college. All of this happens while Kotoko and Naoki are living under one roof, and inevitably (whether Naoki wants it or not) sparks being to fly between them.<br />
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Kotoko starts to prove she's not as incompetent as Naoki seems to think, and Naoki realizes that he can't always shut people out.<br />
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<b>What's good about it?</b><br />
For many reasons, this incarnation of the <i>Itazura na Kiss</i> (ItaKiss) franchise has easily become my favorite and continues to surprise me with its ability to pull off subtleties and spin a well-worn story into something sweet and refreshing. It's not executed with a heavy hand like so many of the others, and it's not overbearing in its attempt to be innocent, either. I'm as surprised as anyone else at the way the production team and cast have been able to breathe new life into this (oftentimes irritating) aimless, fluffy love story.<br />
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<b>So, why do I like it so much?</b><br />
Well, most importantly, the characters aren't irritating. Naoki's not infallible, Kotoko isn't a mindless Irie groupie, and Kinnosuke is sensible and sweet in a bleeding heart kind of a way. They're all differently endearing, whether it's Kotoko's countless attempts at giving up Naoki, or it's Kin-chan trying to knock sense into Kotoko.<br />
<br />
The biggest problem I've always had with the ItaKiss series is that the characters, as written, are two-dimensional. As much as Irie is meant to be conflicted and unsure of his path in life, that plot thread has always felt forced and the romantic chemistry never quite worked for me. Ironically, it's the pairing of 16-year-old <b>Miki Honoka</b> and 25-year-old <b>Furukawa Yuki</b> that finally did it for me.<br />
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<b> </b>Let's be honest here... the character of Naoki has never required much acting, but Furukawa's been able to bring in a little subtlety to the character which I completely appreciate. Kotoko's character is a little harder to pull off, because, as <b>Sato Aiko</b> proved in the 1996 version of the series, there is a <i>very </i>fine line between endearing and annoying. Somehow, though, Miki's been doing a decent job. She's really green, still, and tends to over-act most of the time, but maybe it's the writing that's kept her from being obnoxious.<br />
<br />
I always thought that the character of Aihara Kotoko got short-changed because she's meant to be such an idiot. But as she's written here, and with Miki Honoka in charge of playing her, she's a lot closer to the Oh Ha-ni/<b>Jung So-min</b> version of the character than the Sato Aiko one. Jung So-min was so likeable as Ha-ni because she wasn't shrill and idiotic like Sato. My God, all the screeching in the 1996 version made my ears bleed. Even good writing wouldn't have helped in her case.<br />
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Which brings me to my next point--the writing. A solid writer and good chemistry between the actors can make even the worst plot turn into something watchable, which is the case here. If I was unsure about my feelings toward this show before, Episode 10 convinced me why I like it so much. Friday's hour was the single best drama episode I've seen in a <i>very </i>long time. It flowed so well together and was crafted with the kind of subtlety that this show is so good at that I almost forgot I was watching ItaKiss. The dialogue was on-point, the acting was solid, and the episode's arc was handled with care.<br />
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ItaKiss: Love in Tokyo has something that very few Jdoramas have: pull. It's the writing and it's the acting, but it's mostly execution. Japan is lauded for beautiful cinematography and directing, and for a drama series targeted at reaching a younger audience, this show does a damn good job of pulling off pretty scenes. Whether it's quiet moments like Irie and Kotoko staring out their adjacent windows at the snow falling outside or drinking coffee together in an empty house, or it's harsher scenes like Kotoko and Naoki yelling at each other over the dining table, every piece of dialogue and every second is deliberately filmed.<br />
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<br />
<b>So, any problems?</b><br />
ItaKiss has always had its limitations, as I mentioned before. If you can't summarize a drama in a couple of paragraphs, I find that to be an issue. Writing the "The story so far..." section up there took me serious effort. To condense what's happened in ItaKiss for the last ten episodes without going into summaries of each episode is nearly impossible. Why? Because there's no overall arc for the plot other than, "Persistent Kotoko tries to make Irie-kun fall in love with her." And there's no conflict, which has always been the underlying problem for ItaKiss in any incarnation of the show until now. <br />
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Don't get me wrong--there's slice of life dramas that are a dime-a-dozen, but this doesn't quite fit into that category, and it's not a traditional romantic comedy either, because it's quite episodic in nature. So that leaves you feeling like you can't really place the show or form an educated opinion about it.<br />
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That said, this lack-of-plot problem is built into the story of <i>Itazura na Kiss </i>and anyone going into the show should know that before they criticize it. You can't expect something that isn't in the source material itself. But that's a beast of a problem, if I do say so.<br />
<br />
<b>The Verdict</b><br />
Watch it. If you're like me and you've never really liked ItaKiss, this will probably change your mind a little. It'll make you appreciate the characters a bit, if nothing else. There are no screaming Kotokos or man-kissing Kinnosukes, and there hasn't been a single streaking pervert to be found yet.<br />
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This is much closer to the Korean version of the story than the 1996 Japanese version (thank God), and while Furukawa is no <b>Kashiwabara Takashi</b>, he holds his own as the cold and brooding Naoki and exhibits a charm all his own that has nothing to do with the way his face looks. Damn, though, Kassie did make for a fine Irie Naoki back in the day. <br />
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via (<a href="http://asianwiki.com/Mischievous_Kiss:_Love_in_Tokyo">1</a>)(<a href="http://www.elisluvpink.blogspot.com/">2</a>)adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-1291845049591715062013-06-10T18:23:00.001-04:002013-06-10T18:23:49.444-04:00The Liebster Award<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Being a K-drama blogger is pretty awesome. You know why? Because you make a ton of awesome friends who nominate you for awards, like this one. This post is like a week and a half late, but I hope you all will appreciate it nonetheless and I DEFINITELY appreciate being nominated for it. Thank you, to Rosie and MissCupcakees for the noms!<br />
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<a name='more'></a><b>The rules for receiving this award:</b><br />
<ol>
<li>List 11 random facts about yourself.</li>
<li>Answer the questions designated by the blogger(s) who nominated you.</li>
<li>Place YOUR nominations for the Liebster Award! Nominate five (or more) other bloggers that have less than 200 followers. Make sure to notify them via comment/email etc.</li>
<li>Make up a set of questions for those nominated bloggers to answer.</li>
<li>Display the Liebster award badge on your blog!</li>
</ol>
<br />
<b>My 11 random facts:</b><br />
<ol>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2iXd4uei93v2Z82UjJsJsY6XcBFcupreARquMjE9PLzTNQaB4Q1pYpyxxj6yct0jaU35tBmk4bei43-oKnW9OSmPZ-G7zZFDDkKCjkmN6ecM1-Sk_yYtjbJwChKBVkrVHZZhUpWPVO8/s1600/Jo-In-Sung+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a>
<li>I'm an only child, and the youngest of all my cousins on both sides.</li>
<li>I have a serious phobia of birds and tornadoes. It's totally random and unwarranted, but the phobias have gotten a lot worse in recent years. It's gotten so bad that when I go out to lunch with my friends, we have to request indoor tables every time because I'm scared of the birds hanging around the tables outside.</li>
<li>I have a really bad habit of procrastinating on just about everything. Readers of my blog have probably realized that by now, lol. In college, I used to put off assignments until the morning they were due regardless of whether they were one-page papers or 50-page reports.</li>
<li>My favorite kind of alcohol is wine. I'll drink just about any kind, but sweet reds and moscatos are particularly close to my heart.</li>
<li>In addition to wine, I love beer. Mostly dark beers like stouts or porters. </li>
<li>I have a really bad addiction to Milky Ways at the moment. I'll buy a bag and finish them off within a couple of days. I'm hoping the obsession wears off soon because I'm trying to lose weight and chocolate is my only vice.</li>
<li>People are going to hate me for this, but I'm one of the few drama watchers in the world who isn't obsessed with <b>Lee Min-ho </b>or <i>My Name is Kim Sam-soon. </i>The former I don't find attractive, and the latter I eventually dropped after trying to watch it on multiple occasions.</li>
<li>I majored in Advertising when I was in college, but I eventually want to be a lawyer.</li>
<li>My favorite K-actors are <b>Kim Soo-hyun </b>and <b>Lee Dong-wook</b>, both of whom also played my some of my favorite K-drama characters. As far as actresses go, I really enjoy watching <b>Eugene </b>even though she's not the best actress out there.</li>
<li>I don't usually watch TW-dramas because, embarrassingly, the subtitles are always too fast for me and the dramas are always too long. I have a list of about 30 Taiwanese series I really want to watch, but finding the patience to watch them has been impossible.</li>
<li>I had a dream about <b>Jo In-sung</b> the other night. He was my first love who'd disappeared, and when he came back he began living in my house but was tragically in love with my sister (who doesn't exist) who didn't love him back. In an attempt to get him to return my feelings, I became his stalker. -____-;</li>
</ol>
<ol><center>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2iXd4uei93v2Z82UjJsJsY6XcBFcupreARquMjE9PLzTNQaB4Q1pYpyxxj6yct0jaU35tBmk4bei43-oKnW9OSmPZ-G7zZFDDkKCjkmN6ecM1-Sk_yYtjbJwChKBVkrVHZZhUpWPVO8/s1600/Jo-In-Sung+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2iXd4uei93v2Z82UjJsJsY6XcBFcupreARquMjE9PLzTNQaB4Q1pYpyxxj6yct0jaU35tBmk4bei43-oKnW9OSmPZ-G7zZFDDkKCjkmN6ecM1-Sk_yYtjbJwChKBVkrVHZZhUpWPVO8/s320/Jo-In-Sung+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></center>
</ol>
<b>Questions by Rosie</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>1. What is your favorite Asian drama, that you know isn't really all that good, but it doesn't even matter?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Haha, <i>Secret Garden</i>. That drama gave me so much grief when I first watched it because I was torn as to whether I should like it as much as I did. Eventually, I realized I <i>shouldn't</i> but that my affection for it had grown far too much by that time.<br />
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<b>2.</b> <b>What drama character would you like to be best friends with (not romantically attached to)? </b><br />
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Kim Pil-sook from <i>Dream High</i>, or Cha Eun-gyul from <i>To the Beautiful You</i>. Pil-sook because... c'mon, she's Pil-sook, and she was probably a much better friend to Hye-mi than Baek-hee could ever be. Eun-gyul because he's Puppy and I will love him forever even if the drama that spawned him was awful.<b> </b><br />
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<b>3. Name a drama character that you most relate to (not who you wish you could be).</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Either Sung Shi-won from <i>Answer Me 1997</i>, or Go Eun-chan from <i>Coffee Prince</i>. Probably Shi-won because, like her, I'm really bad at making decisions when it has to do with my Feelings and I'm horrible at expressing myself once I've made that decision. On the other hand, I'm a total guy like Eun-chan. I relate more to my guy friends than my girl friends, taking an interest in things like comic books, superheroes, and cars, and I can't put on makeup to save my life.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>4. What is your favorite book that may have also had a huge impact on your life besides entertainment?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
This'll sound really shallow because everyone always expects a fancy answer to questions like this, but I really have to say <i>Harry Potter</i>. The series made up a good chunk of my childhood and was the reason I became interested in writing to begin with. Without Harry and Hermione and Ron, I don't know that I'd even be writing this blog today.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>5. What is your favorite non-Asian movie that also had an impact on your life?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
I'm going to cheat a little bit here and pick an American movie <i>about </i>Asian people. <i>Memoirs of a Geisha. </i>My cousin mocks me for this all the time, but it's really one of my favorite movies of all time. It was the main reason I became interested in film and movies in general, and the cinematography and acting and everything in it is brilliant.<br />
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<b>Questions by misscupcakees</b><br />
<b></b><br />
<div>
<b>1. What was your inspiration/motivation for starting up your blog?</b></div>
<ol>
</ol>
Dramabeans, mostly. And the idea of having an outlet of my own from which to express my thoughts and complaints about various dramas really appealed to me. My thoughts are always going a mile a minute when I watch a drama, so I wanted a place where I could rant freely.<b> </b><br />
<b></b><br />
<div>
<b>2. What does drama blogging mean to you?</b></div>
<ol>
</ol>
It means being able to meet people who share this (for me, a guilty pleasure) interest with me. It also means being able to really <i>think </i>about the shows I'm watching and judging them objectively so that other people can share in my love (or hate) of the dramas I've watched.<b> </b><br />
<b></b><br />
<div>
<b>3. What is the most ludicrous drama scene that you have seen?</b></div>
<ol>
</ol>
Just about every scene in <i>Mitsu no Aji ~ A Taste of Honey</i> ~ was pretty ludicrous (don't ever watch that drama, by the way--your opinion of <b>Mizubata Junpei</b> and <b>ARATA</b> will forever be ruined). The same with <i>Innocent Love</i>. Where do they come up with these things, seriously?! As far as single-most insane scene ever--probably that scene in <i>Secret Garden </i>where Joo-won's mom comes to Ra-im's house and dumps Joo-won's underwear over her head. That scene made me physically cringe.<b> </b><br />
<b></b><br />
<div>
<b>4. Who is your all-time favorite OTP and why?</b></div>
<ol>
</ol>
Song Sam-dong and Go Hye-mi from <i>Dream High </i>or Chiaki Senpai and Nodame from <i>Nodame Cantabile</i>. Sam-dong and Hye-mi were best friends before they became a couple and that in itself says a lot about the dynamic of their relationship. They weren't afraid to let of each other in order to follow their dreams. That takes guts. For Chiaki and Nodame--well, they're just perfect for each other, aren't they?<b> </b><br />
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<b><b>5. If you could write up your own drama, what would the summarized plot be?</b></b><br />
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It would be about a woman who is a self-made millionaire who falls in love with her childhood best friend who's an aspiring artist. Only, he's the second lead. The first lead is a guy who is also rich and hates our protagonist, but even after he falls for her, she turns him down in favor of Mr. BFF Man. Not the most articulate plot, but you know get the jist.<br />
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<b>Tags!</b><br />
<ol>
<li><a href="http://maymaywatch.blogspot.com/">Maymay</a><b> </b></li>
<li><a href="http://idlerevelry.wordpress.com/">ladida</a><b> </b></li>
<li><a href="http://www.samsoondowntherabbithole.com/">bustered</a><b> </b></li>
<li><a href="http://mydramatea.wordpress.com/">heisui</a><b> </b></li>
<li><a href="http://allthatdramanews.blogspot.com/">Eye Candy</a></li>
</ol>
<b>Questions</b><br />
<ol>
<li>If there is one, what was the one drama you watched that you wish you could unwatch and why?</li>
<li>Have you ever watched a drama more than once? If so, which one and how many times have you seen it?</li>
<li>Are you a native Korean/Japanese/Mandarin speaker? If you're not, given the opportunity, would you seriously consider learning one of the aforementioned languages? </li>
<li>Who is your singularly LEAST favorite drama character ever? Why?</li>
<li>Who is your singularly LEAST favorite drama OTP ever? Why? </li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span>adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-13532625437825020682013-06-03T22:40:00.002-04:002013-06-24T22:45:30.812-04:00Progress Report: You're the Best, Lee Soon-shin! Episodes 1 - 25<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, <i>You're the Best, Lee Soon-shin!</i> has aired just over half its allotted episodes by now and I figured I should weigh in with at least <i>some </i>kind of opinion on it since I'm still watching. Anyone that follows this blog knows about my plight with family dramas and longer shows in general, but considering this is the first time I've kept up with one as it airs live, there's a good chance I'll probably finish it. (Maybe.) (I hope.) (Please, Drama Gods?)<br />
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Side note: I'm going into this review under the impression that those who are reading it know all the principle characters.<br />
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Also, remember, you can watch <i>You're the Best, Lee Soon-shin! </i>on <a href="http://www.dramafever.com/drama/4250/You%27re_the_Best%2C_Lee_Soon_Shin/?utm_source=hasoffers&utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=Adverseffects&utm_campaign=affiliate&offer_id=12&aff_id=234">DramaFever</a>.<br />
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<b>The Story Thus Far</b><br />
To be completely honest, everything meaty that needed to happen kind of happened within the first ten episodes, and we've been on this "one character finds out THE BIG SECRET every week" carousel for a long time now. LSS should be called <i>Birth Secret</i> instead of the show with that name that's also currently airing. <b>Lee Mi-sook<i> </i></b>is almost given more screen time than <b>IU </b>and <b>Jo Jung-suk</b> these days which is reallyreallyreally grating on my nerves.<br />
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But I digress. So, until now, we've learned that Soon-shin, our main character, is not the biological daughter of the mother who has raised her, but that she is, instead, the offspring of big-time actress with a big time ego Song Mi-ryung. By Episode 25, everyone and their mom knows the truth (except Soon-shin, of course, who's only just found out) and Mi-ryung has threatened to go public with the news via press conference to save her own ass and her floundering reputation in the acting world. <br />
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Meanwhile, Yoo-shin has begun to date Chan-woo, with the promise that neither of their families will find out. But then they have a fight and break up. Oh noes.<br />
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Big sister Hye-shin has the cutest admirer ever in the form of Jin-wook, the baker, but her bratty daughter Woo-joo keeps getting in the way every time baker ajusshi tries to talk to her mom.<br />
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Other than that, Soon-shin tried to be an actress, but Joon-ho and Yeon-ah were ousted as having made a bet about her, so Soon-shin quit the company to be unemployed instead. Somewhere along the line, feelings got confused but no one will say anything to anyone about that, so Joon-ho and Soon-shin must instead wallow in their own misery as the birth secret thing takes the forefront instead.<br />
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<b>So, the problem? </b><br />
It's been apparent to me from Day 1 that Chang-hoon isn't Soon-shin's bio dad, considering how his character was written and the way he acted toward his family, but then we had to wait until Episode 25 for someone to confirm that for us. I have my own suspicions about the true story, but I'm sure we'll have to wait until Episode 50 for Show to verify.<b> </b> <br />
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Which brings me to my biggest problems with LSS (and longer dramas in general)--pacing. When you're writing for 50 episodes I suppose it gets hard to come with new material each week. But then again, I always seem to go into these shows under the assumption that a castful of well-rounded characters will keep the narrative flowing throughout the drama's run. I'm always proven wrong when, to my chagrin, the writer decides to cling to a certain plot point in the hopes that it will take him/her to the drama's conclusion and everyone will be all hunky dory. Sorry, but no.<br />
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You have a BEVY of characters, each with their own pretty interesting storylines, so WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS CLING TO THE ONE PLOT POINT THAT IS THE LEAST INTERESTING? I mean, everyone knows Soon-shin will eventually find out (and just has found out) about her mommy/daddy issues and that the shit's going to hit the fan when that happens, but really? Dragging it out for 25 episodes seems like a bit much. Especially when you sacrifice happy OTP time for brooding Song Mi-ryung scenes for 40 minutes in every episode. Seriously... I'm not joking. In Episode 24 (I think) Joon-ho didn't even make a single appearance until past thirty minutes in.<br />
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That is a problem, Show. A big one.<br />
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<b>If you're done ranting... what were the things you liked?</b><br />
Though at this point, they're few and far between, there were a few things I've liked about LSS. Namely, Lee Soon-shin herself and her relationship with Joon-ho. They're bickering is vaguely reminiscent of Hae-young and Seol from <i>My Princess</i>, though Joon-ho is way more endearing and awkwardly adorable than Hae-young ever was. They honestly don't get enough scenes together anymore. At least not ones that don't involve him begging her to act again and her shutting him down.<br />
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Other things I like? Jin-wook. He's so cute.<br />
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That's about it. I liked Yoo-shin and Chan-woo before they became predictable, and Soon-shin's relationship with her mom was great, until that was ruined too.<br />
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<b>The Verdict</b><br />
Uhm, I'll probably keep watching the show in the hopes that we spend the second half concentrating on the acting and lovey dovey bits more and less on the birth secret stuff. That and I really want to see things to the end just for Soon-shin and Joon-ho, because they're really cute together.<br />
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Other than that, I hope by Episode 50 Song Mi-ryung and her stupid manager find a nice, steep cliff to fall off of and that someone puts a sock in Chan-woo's mom's mouth before I strangle her. Oh, and maybe Joon-ho's annoying little sister can get shipped back off to America again. Things were so much calmer without her and her fire-engine red hair around. Honestly, <i>who </i>thought that was a good idea?<b> </b> <b> </b><br />
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Sorry... all the pictures are of Joon-ho and Soon-shin together. Can't blame me if those were the only ones that seemed worthy of posting lol.adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-3211072816731558572013-05-02T13:02:00.000-04:002013-05-02T13:02:18.263-04:00Heartbreak!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, I've been cleaning my apartment for the last couple of days to prepare for family coming over for my college graduation. Normally, when I overhaul my apartment like this, I do it while listening to my favorite soundtracks as opposed to leaving the TV on or a movie playing. It's better therapy for me (for whatever reason) to just mindlessly sing along to whatever song is playing while I wash dishes or fold clothes.<br />
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So, I've been listening to a lot of Lenka of late after hearing her on <i>You're the Best, Lee Soon-shin!</i> and Grouplove after last summer's <i>Sprout </i>in preparation for summer coming up this year (which, it hasn't yet... even Florida's been hanging out in the 60s every night lately...). But I got to thinking about summer dramas in general and how I always used to listen to the unofficial <i>Coffee Prince </i>soundtrack (via Dramabeans) when I was a freshman and working on design projects, and realized I needed to dig up my old CDs with the songs on them so I could clean to those instead.<br />
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Come to find out, first, that I don't have the discs up here at uni with me and that, second, the soundtrack links are all broken on the DB website so I can't even re-download them. Needless to say, I sat on my couch pouting for a while as I mourned, and then spent a couple of hours going through all my closets trying to find the discs. Luckily, I had one of them tucked into a stack of CDs in my car which will tide me over until I can get home in a couple of weeks and find the rest of the discs.<br />
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Lesson learned? Put all your music into storage on the internet. There are reasons why CDs are obsolete!adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-57413158976087647712013-04-17T00:18:00.000-04:002013-06-24T21:47:27.084-04:00Once Upon a Time in Saengchori: Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ohh, <i>Saengchori</i>... <i>Saengchori</i>, <i>Saengchori</i>, <i>Saengchori...</i> It's been a while since a show left me unclear as to how I felt about it after the credits rolled, but this one seems to have done it. To say that I think it suffered from bad writing would probably be only partly true, because it was really problems in the plot that made it go wonky towards the end.<br />
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As usual, this review has many a spoiler attached, which is particularly important to note for this show, which revolved around a murder mystery. Just a heads up!<br />
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Last note: This post will debut my new review system. I've added a couple of sections, and each one now gets its own score, which I average at the bottom to give you my overall technical score for the show. I figure that's a better way to go than just giving out arbitrary numbers for ratings--this holds me accountable for the scores I'm giving with plenty of reasoning behind them to back them up.<br />
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Watch <i>Once Upon a Time in Saengchori </i>on <a href="http://www.dramafever.com/drama/3905/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Saengchori/?utm_source=hasoffers&utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=Adverseffects&utm_campaign=affiliate&offer_id=12&aff_id=234">DramaFever</a>!<br />
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<b>Plot Overview</b><br />
An entire branch of the Samjin Securities firm comes under the wrong wheel (literally) of their new boss when they're all found loitering the streets drunk on the eve of their colleague's funeral. This is a further exacerbation of an incident that happened prior, and the entire office is packed off to the countryside as a way to get them out of the company's hair. Among those in the group are our leading lady YOO EUN-JOO (<b>Lee Young-eun</b>) who's just been dumped by her fiance, her (very hot) jokester sunbae HAN JI-MIN (<b>Kim Dong-yoon</b>), the branch's manager LEE MAN-SOO (<b>KANG! NAM! GIL!</b>), resident farter CHOI DAL-GOOK (<b>Jo Sang-ki</b>), cowardly lion BONG JIN-SOO (<b>Kim Kyung-bum</b>), and the girl with a sordid secret PARK MIN-YOUNG (<b>Jung Ji-ah</b>). None of them are too happy about the relocation, but eventually fall into a routine out in Saengchori, a town full of secrets of its own.<br />
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On the flip side is JO MIN-SUNG (<b>Ha Suk-jin</b>), Samjin's right hand man, a math whiz of the best kind, and cold to the point of cruelty. He's engaged to the company president's (Pali pali!) daughter, Bok-soon, whom I wanted to punch in the face more than a couple of times. Min-sung has the unfortunate fate of getting struck by lightning one night, which causes him to lose his ability to deal with numbers entirely. He can neither read clocks nor do simple addition and subtraction, let alone complicated stock forecasts. It's with a heavy heart and a determination not to let this get him down that Min-sung asks the president to send him to Saengchori so he can get the new branch in line and work on a secret side project. The president reluctantly allows him to do so, and that's how everyone ends up in Saengchori.<br />
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Only... that's where the real story begins. Murder, mystery, romance, oh my!<br />
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<b>Personal Thoughts</b><br />
I have mixed emotions about this show, as I said, and the further removed I get from the ending, the more I begin to see some of its flaws. Don't get me wrong--it's a good show. There are certainly much worse dramas out there, as most of you can probably attest to, and this was a solid enough watch that I got through it in one go (as in, without stopping for a few weeks before I finished it). That likely has to do with the mystery aspect of the plot and wanting to find out what was going to happen/who the killer was. But that's also where the problems start, because I had many an issue with the ending.<br />
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One thing I did not have a problem with were the characters themselves, for the most part. The character development was way off, but the characters as they were written (with the exception of crankybutt Min-sung) were quite likable, which holds a lot of weight in ensemble cast dramas. Another thing that was done well was the tone, until about the last two episodes. Everything stayed very consistent throughout the drama, allowing you to seamlessly transition from the light and funny to the weird and creepy.<br />
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<b>Characters - 8/10</b><br />
As an ensemble cast, this show had a <i>lot </i>of characters. Most were background or periphery, with a number of them getting their own storylines/plot threads. Because of the overabundance of people, there were a few storylines that were glossed over too quickly and which left me wanting more.<br />
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<i>Jo Min-sung: </i>Min-sung was really the assiest male lead I've seen in a drama for a while and, considering I just watched <i>Thank You</i>, that's saying something. He was a one trick pony--cold to everyone, even his family, and unbelievably stiff. Min-sung always reminded me of <b>Yoon Kye-sang</b>'s Cha Seung-hyo from <i>Who Are You? </i>in his awkwardness and inability to deal with Feelings. Min-sung was a little less likable than Seung-hyo, though, because we saw in his interactions with his family too, that he wasn't any different, and didn't change for most of the series.<br />
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The first time we're ever shown his humane side was in his relationship with OH NA-YOUNG (<b>Nam Bo-ra</b>), with whom he seemed to empathize. Even so, all his good deeds were negated by his general ass-hattery, as when he embarrassed Man-soo in front of the whole office and his daughters. And it was much harder to get to like him (especially when we had the beautiful and perfect Han Ji-min around to distract us) because he remained an ass for most of the drama. There was very little character development for the first half, which goes back to the pacing problem, and that made it really difficult for him to grow on me.<br />
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Honestly, if it weren't Ha Suk-jin playing him, I'd have hated <i>Saengchori </i>just for having Min-sung as the lead instead of Ji-min sunbae. To be fair, though, Ha Suk-jin's acting was pretty good. He played the assy parts just as capably as the funny bits, which helped endear him to me early on. It's just too bad that Min-sung got the short end of the character development stick, but I think there was just too much other stuff going on that the writer didn't have time to squeeze it in. Which is no excuse at all.<br />
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<i>Yoo Eun-joo: </i>Eun-joo fared a great bit better than Min-sung in the character development and writing departments. She was likable from the start, and humanized by her crazy drunken antics, as well as by the empathy we were led to feel when she got dumped by her fiance. The only thing that really irritated me about her was that she more or less played Ji-min when she realized she had feelings for Min-sung. And, thinking about it, she didn't have much of a personality other than her drunkenness and overall being-nice-to-everyone-ness. She was neither terribly flawed, nor terribly perfect, with makes her just... average on the interesting scale. As a lead, she wasn't anything special, and neither was Lee Young-eun's acting.<br />
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<i>Han Ji-min: </i>I haven't felt this bad for a second lead since Joon-sae oppa in <i>Brilliant Legacy</i>. Really. Puppy was so sad when he lost the girl! I joke about Ji-min, but for the better part of the series, he's the one who had better chemistry with Eun-joo and was the better match for her, hands down. That's why it pissed me off so much when, at the end, he was implicated in the murder mystery. It feels like the writer just needed the most unlikely character to use as the scapegoat, but that ended up tainting Ji-min's character for me, and left a bad taste in my mouth. Dirty dealings do not bode well for a character who's been more or less an angel throughout the show. As for acting, I really liked Kim Dong-yoon in this role. It made me wish he'd get cast in more roles, and not as the second lead next time.<br />
<i><br /></i>I won't go into the rest of the cast because there were too many periphery characters who all had to do with the mystery and with the office plotlines. Overall, they were written quite well and quite consistently until the very end, which I think ruined much of the first 18 or so episodes for me. I was never bored watching the other storylines unfold, including those of the bumbling Dal-gook and Jin-soo, and the mystery kept me entertained as well. Each character, whether on-screen all the time or for five minutes per episode had their quirks and that made it all the more fun to watch.<br />
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<b>Character Development - 4/10</b><br />
Character development was by far the biggest problem for this drama and was what led to its ultimate demise. I watched the first half knowing not to expect too much until the plot started to heat up, but the second half brought with it more of the same and nothing really happened to the characters themselves. I think part of the problem was that the character development got sidelined in favor of plot, but when you have such caricatures/archetypal characters, it's important not to forget to... you know, <i>write them</i>. Min-sung suffered the most, by far, and Man-soo as well, at the end. It's too bad, because coupled with a well-written plot (which had its own problems) and good characters, this show would have been an awesome find.<br />
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<b>Plot - 7/10</b><br />
In a broad sense, the plot for <i>Saengchori </i>had the makings of a hit. It's too bad it didn't follow through properly on most of what it promised. The problem is that while the mystery was the show's "gimmick" and what it boasted in plot descriptions, that part of the drama seemed to get sidelined for other things after a while. If <i>Saengchori </i>were billed as a romantic comedy to begin with, I'd have been fine with that. But it was supposed to be a romance/comedy/mystery/thriller mash-up, the latter of it which it only took on as a part-time gig.<br />
<br />
And the end (and Man-soo's character) was handled so poorly, that I almost reconsidered my opinion of the whole show. It made no sense, even after we were given his back story, for Man-soo to be the murderer. It completely deviated from his character to have him be so vengeful of one guy's (for all intents and purposes) TEASING to intentionally murder him. Anything would have done--even introducing a new character to the mix right at the end and making him the murder. It just didn't make sense, contextually, for it to be Man-soo. It wasn't even that I liked Man-soo's character too much, it was just that it was incredible and entirely unbelievable for him to be the murder. And the way it was written into the last two episodes made it seem like it was a last minute decision by the writer.<br />
<br />
Which brings me to my next point--the Saengchori mystery. What the hell happened? Nothing was resolved at all by the end of the show. Sure, the village foreman was arrested and led away, but the man behind it all was neither revealed nor captured himself, which makes no sense either.<br />
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One thing that was kind of handled properly was the romance. And I say "kind of," because even in this respect, the writer seemed to switch gears about 2/3 of the way through the show. It was always apparent that Eun-joo and Ji-min weren't going to end up together, but it was so long before we started to see any hints of a romance between Eun-joo and Min-sung, that it made me less invested in them. This was one of the few times when I didn't buy into the lead couple until very late into the show, and that has to do partly with problems in pacing and character development, but also with mishandling of the relationships a little bit, too, I think. That's why the ending was so WTF for me, because it was way too hard for me to buy into, having spent 20 episodes with these characters. <br />
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<b>Pacing - 4.5/10</b><br />
Pacing was just as much of a problem as character development. The show remained mostly stagnant for the first half, which made it difficult to buy into the second half. It probably would have benefited from being cut down by a few episodes, despite only being 45-min long per each, because the show was slowed down quite a bit in spite of its premise. My problem with the pacing was really that the mystery aspect of it got crammed into the last couple of episodes as the denouement, while almost the entire drama before that was focused on the romance and just about anything else they <i>could </i>focus on. The mystery played in to about 5 minutes of each episode, and didn't really make sense with the context ever.<br />
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<b>Tone - 9/10</b><br />
If <i>Saengchori </i>did one thing right, it was the tone. That was almost the only aspect of the show that remained consistent throughout, until the last couple of episodes. It maintained its quirky and funny atmosphere for the duration, mixing light moments with heavier ones as appropriately as possible. <br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Soundtrack - 6/10</b><br />
Nothing to write home about, but neither was it irritating, which is why it gets a slightly above-average rating.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Wardrobe - 8/10</b><br />
Wardrobe is hard to put a number on in shows that don't have a requirement for special costumes, like sageuks or fantasies. Even so, as we all were taught in <i>Spring Waltz</i>, even a 20th century wardrobe can be taken to extremes when trying to incorporate a particular theme. Luckily for us, <i>Saengchori</i> had no such tonal requirements, and all the characters were dressed well in normal office and casual attire throughout. No one had horrible makeup or dressing issues, with the women in fashionable work outfits and the men in suits, vests, and ties for most of it. Thank goodness, because the last thing a beautiful cast needs is for their attractiveness to be masked by ugly clothes and makeup, especially when the premise doesn't require it.<br />
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<b>Cinematography/Sets and Scenery - 6/10</b><br />
If tone was the best thing about <i>Saengchori</i>, then cinematography was certainly the weirdest. I'm not sure what the production team was thinking, because the camera was the most inconsistent thing about the show. There were moments when the cinematography was absolutely gorgeous, as with most of the night scenes in Seoul. But just as often, it was drab and normal like every other drama on the planet. I'm not sure what the reason was behind the stark difference, but I wish they wouldn't have teased me with the pretty camerawork if they weren't going to use it all the time.<br />
<br />
The sets, just like most everything else about the show, were fairly normal. Nothing special like in dramas like <i>Goong </i>and <i>My Princess</i>, and even the houses and office spaces were totally boring. The scenery fared better, showing off the pretty countrysides of Saengchori and using it to play up the tone.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Final Thoughts</b><br />
Overall, <i>Saengchori </i>was worth the 20+ hours I spent watching it. There wasn't anything groundbreaking about it, but it did elicit a few laughs and horrified squeals from me, which is pretty much all I wanted. It's too bad it suffered from mediocre execution, because done right, this would have been a gem. It's also to the detriment of this drama that I watched it just after finishing <i>Thank You</i>. My expectations were much too high.<br />
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<b>Watch it for...</b><br />
Beautiful leads (HA! SUK! JIN!) and tons of sight gags, as well as preposterous situation comedy.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Out of 10</b><br />
6.5/10. Certainly funny and fun to watch, but problems in plot and character development prevented me from loving it.
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<br />
Hello, my lovely (probably nonexistent at this point) readers. It's probably become apparent to you by now that when school starts, I go AWOL. Lucky for you, I'm currently a month and a half (give or take a few days) away from graduating college, so I'll be able to come back to the drama world permanently very soon!<br />
<br />
My drama queue grows longer and longer each day as I miss more and more time in Dramaland, so my workload will be piled sky high when I get back. I've been keeping up with the happenings peripherally while I've been gone, and I'm sad to hear about the <strong>Park Shi-hoo </strong>rape scandal, as well as all the Dramafever vs. Dramabeans drama going on of late. <br />
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I vaguely recall that my last post back in January or so was meant to be about how excited I was that <strong>Mizushima Hiro </strong>was coming back to the world of drama, but I never did get around to posting that. I also finished <em>Assorted Gems</em> in the interim, and have a few mini-recaps and a review to post when I get back. <br />
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So, I wanted to pop in to say never fear, lovelies! Don't count me out just yet. I'll be back towards the beginning of May, I think, though I might post some stuff before that if I get a chance. Don't be too angry! (And yes, if you're wondering, the picture of <strong>Seo In-gook </strong>is there as a distractor.)<br />
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-Adverseffectsadverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-53296245783010521462012-12-26T17:10:00.000-05:002012-12-27T14:12:06.184-05:00Lee Min-jung visits terminally ill children for the Make a Wish Foundation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I love hearing stuff like this. Whether it's <b>Christian Bale </b>spontaneously (and without a posse of paparazzi on his tail) visiting victims of the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting in July, or <b>Lee Min-jung </b>halfway across the world going to see a terminally ill fan at the hospital, reading stories about celebs giving back to their fans makes me feel all fuzzy inside.<br />
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On the 22nd, the Korean star of <i>Big </i>volunteered for the Make a Wish Foundation with her fan club members who were at a hospital making Wish Bears for terminally ill children. In particular, she met with 17-year-old Byun Yong-joon, who is terminally ill with Hodgkin's disease.<br />
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Lee sat with the teenager for an hour, listening to him and answering questions. Byun had made a wish to see the actress as a part of the event, and Lee surprised everyone for showing up to meet with the all the kids.<br />
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Aw. I think it's awesome with people who, by all rights, have the resources to do good things actually, you know, do them. Props to Lee Min-jung!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">via <a href="http://www.soompi.com/2012/12/26/actress-lee-min-jung-meets-with-a-terminally-ill-fan/">Soompi</a></span>adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-81142523877260274402012-12-22T21:29:00.000-05:002012-12-22T21:31:01.122-05:00Weekly Wrap-up: week of 12/16 - 12/22<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What a week! The world almost ended, I went to a Christmas party, I finally marathoned <i>Answer Me 1997</i>, and started watching a couple other dramas. I consider that pretty productive. Now, if I could just finish up my Christmas shopping...<br />
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This week's notes:<br />
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1. <b>Blog-related: </b>Posted a review for <i><a href="http://adverseffects.blogspot.com/2012/12/kingyo-club-review-spoiler-free.html">Kingyo Club</a></i>, finally. I had it sitting on my computer waiting to be finished for the better part of six months. And it's spoiler-free! I'm so bad at those, so consider it a miracle. If you haven't watched this short little drama yet, go do it right now!<br />
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2. <b>Newsie Information: </b><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Yoo Seung-ho </b>(<i>I Miss You</i>, <i>Arang and the Magistrate</i>), Dramaland's Baby So Ji-sub, is headed to the army after <i>I Miss You </i>wraps filming. Whut?! Everyone's a'buzz about this because Yoo is only 19 (20 by Korean standards). It's a smart move, of course, because he'll be enlisting with people his own age and he's at a great place in his career--too young to play the leading man just yet, but too old (and probably too talented) to be a child actor anymore--so he needs that 21-month (sob) hiatus to allow him to grow up a bit so he can come back and be a true leading man (with choco abs!). See you in 2014! [via <a href="http://dramabeans.com/">Dramabeans</a>]</li>
<li><b>Kim Sun-ah </b>(<i>I Do, I Do</i>, <i>Scent of a Woman</i>)<b> </b>joins the cast of revenge thriller film <i>The Five</i>. I don't know much about this because I watch less Korean and more Japanese movies, but it seems to be a step away from her "usual" roles, so I'm excited to see what she'll turn out. The story is based on a web comic by Jung Yeon-sik called "The 5ive Hearts" and sounds a little gruesome. Filming begins early next year. [via <a href="http://asianwiki.com/">AsianWiki</a>]</li>
<li><b>Jeon Ki-sang </b>has been hired to helm upcoming fashion-related drama <i>Gangnam Style</i>. Now, as I understand it, this drama will be an adaptation of a web comic called "Fashion King" but has nothing to do with this year's atrocious drama of the same name, nor the popular Psy song <i>Gangnam Style</i>. Well, that's a bit confusing. This announcement is particularly interesting because this is the man responsible for greatly-directed dramas like <i>My Girl </i>and <i>Delightful Girl Choon-hyang</i> (and more recently <i>To The Beautiful You</i>), but also all over the place ones like <i>Witch Yoo-hee </i>and <i>Boys Over Flowers</i> (soundtrack choices, anyone?). He's got the subtlety of a hammer at times, but he does quiet moments and monumental sets <i>really </i>well. We shall see how this comes out once filming (and casting) begins. [via <a href="http://asianwiki.com/">AsianWiki</a>]</li>
<li><b>U-Know Yunho </b>has been cast in <b>Soo Ae </b>and <b>Kwon Sang-woo</b>'s upcoming drama <i>Yawang</i>. Check out the first stills over at <a href="http://www.dramabeans.com/2012/12/yawang-stills-and-plot-setups/">Dramabeans</a>. I'm actually looking forward to another Soo Ae series. I skipped that bucket of tears <i>A Thousand Days' Promise </i>that she did with <b>Kim Rae-won </b>earlier this year, but I like her lots, so I'll be keeping an eye out for this one. <i>Yawang </i>tells the story of a woman stemming from poverty who aspires to become Korea's first lady and her childhood friend who sacrifices himself for her. [via <a href="http://asianwiki.com/">AsianWiki</a>]</li>
</ul>
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3. More excitingness over at <a href="http://dramafever.com/">DramaFever</a>! <i>In Time With You</i> is now available for streaming. It's going to be a busy rest of vacation for me. I watched ITWY earlier this year right after it had aired, but the middle dragged so much that I ended up dropping it a few episodes before the end. It's kind of got the vibe of <i>Answer Me, 1997 </i>(and a similar premise, with the two leads being best friends since forever, and we even get small flashbacks from their high school years) without much of the pure awesomeness of that show. Maybe a rewatch is in order? I think sooooo...</div>
adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-65077163398989879512012-12-21T15:34:00.000-05:002012-12-21T23:42:36.008-05:00Kingyo Club: Review (Spoiler-Free)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yay! The world didn't end (yet) and I'm here with a review.<br />
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If you've spent much time following my blog, you probably know that I'm averse to melodramas. Even so, every now and again, a melo will catch my eye and dig its little claws into me until I finally sit down to watch it. There are very few instances in which I come out of a melodrama satisfied because, let's face it, the makjang elements make us roll our eyes more often than not. It's even rarer for me to find one I truly like, but somehow <i>Kingyo Club </i>and its small cast of (relative) newbies managed to do that.<br />
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<b>Overview and Personal Thoughts</b><br />
<i>Kingyo Club </i>is a sad, sweet drama that encapsulates the idea of overcoming adolescent hardships through friendship, and it's certainly worth a watch. It's brutally honest, and unflinching in its depiction of bullying. The child actress playing the female lead, <b>Kariya Yuiko</b>, who was only 15 years old at the time of the drama's airing, does a breathtaking job in her role as Harukawa Koto. Her counterpart, 18-year-old <b>Irie Jingi</b>, is in similar standing, and together they make the drama come off the screen. It's hard to describe my love for this short series, but it more or less mirrors my devotion to <i>Nobuta wo Produce</i>, but it's so much more real and has so much heart. I haven't seen a J-dorama yet that was this genuine in its depiction. There are certainly no frills, which makes it all the more better. It's sincere. It's organic.<br />
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Here's quick rundown of the premise:<br />
Hiiragi Haru is an apathetic third year in high school. Despite being popular among his classmates (particularly the girls), he's not interested in studying or love. He has no plans for the future and goes through his days sleeping in class and ignoring his peers for the most part. On the other end of the spectrum is Harukawa Koto, a first year who, as the result of an unfortunate family background, is the target of bullying at school. One day, Haru spots Koto being bullied and something about the sight stirs him to intervene. Thus begins this unlikely friendship. To get away from the harshness of the rest of the world, the pair creates a two-man after school club, the Kingyo Club as their safe haven. Yet in spite of finding a place to belong, outside forces continue to hinder their path toward living a peaceful high school life.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Characters</b><br />
<i>Kingyo Club</i>, as I said, is by all rights a melodrama. But what tripped me up and made me look twice was the sheer caliber of the acting. The story is pretty self-contained and revolves around the two main characters of Haru and Koto. I considered everyone else in the story to be <i>reacting</i> <i>to </i>these two, so they're the only ones who concerned me. Still, despite the show's short running time, there were a bevy of named (and sometimes unnamed) supporting characters, like Haru's friends, who rounded out the story. They were surprisingly well written for getting such limited screen time.<br />
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<i>Hiiragi Haru</i>: As the unconcerned Haru Senpai, Irie Jingi did a stellar job. You know right off the bat that there's a concrete reason for why he is the way he is and that only something like Koto being bullied can shake him out of his stupor. I think a lot of credit can be given to the directing for how organic the show felt, but it was Irie's acting that made it come truly alive. His raw emotion at seeing Koto's pain was heartbreaking and made the story feel real.<br />
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<i>Harukawa Koto</i>: Even more so, however, the credit goes to newbie actress Kariya Yuiko for her turn as Koto. Gosh did this little girl make me cry like a baby or what. You just feel so bad for her, and there was really no separation for me between the character and the actress. Her acting never pulled me out of any particular scene nor did it make me feel like I was watching a drama. I've likened her before as being in the same league as <b>Shida Mirai</b>, and I hold fast to that assessment even now. This is one talented actress, even at this young age, who does the roughness of melodrama incredibly well.<br />
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<b>Plot and Pacing</b><br />
At under 20 minutes per episode and only 10 episodes in its entirety, it's an easy watch. One that I finished in between studying for an exam, but could feasibly be finished in a few hours if I'd had time to sit down and marathon it. My only complaint, of course, is that it may be a little <i>too </i>short. The good thing, however, is that the story was narrow enough that every aspect of it got proper attention and nothing felt like it was done in broad strokes, which is important for such a character-based plot.<br />
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<b>Soundtrack</b><br />
There's not much to be said of the soundtrack. I don't remember any songs in particular that can be linked with the drama, but that's not really why I was watching it. This show isn't about the music so much as it is about the story.<br />
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<b>Wardrobe</b><br />
The kids were in their school uniforms for about 90% of the drama, so wardrobe isn't something that can be judged, really. Even so, their makeup and hair and everything was appropriately simple and so were their casual clothes.<br />
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<b>Cinematography/Sets and Scenery</b><br />
The cinematography was one of the best things about <i>Kingyo Club</i>. It wasn't fancy or memorable for its pizzazz. It was as raw and natural as the acting and story. I read somewhere that someone recommended <i>Sprout</i> for viewers who liked <i>Kingyo Club</i>, and I agree. The cinematography is really reminiscent of <i>Sprout</i>, with soft colors and a summer vibe. The sets were nothing to write home about, though the storage area where Haru and Koto held their Kingyo Club meetings was appropriately isolated and self-contained, just like the two characters themselves.<br />
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<b>Final Thoughts</b><br />
If you're short on time and looking for a sad and sweet love story with a satisfying conclusion, don't miss this. It's the length of a very long movie (about 3.5 hours, if that) but includes a solid storyline with believable characters and situations. It's about pulling through in the worst of times and not giving up, about first love in all its glory, and finding a friend who will love you unconditionally. I can't praise it enough.<br />
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Plus, it's so rare that Japan gets a melodrama right that I couldn't believe this was so good after I'd finished it. Japanese melos tend to stray into crazy territory (<i>Innocent Love</i>, <i>Mitsu no Aji ~A Taste of Honey~</i>, I'm looking at you...). When done right, however, Japanese melos can be works of art in and of themselves. This is a perfect example, as is <i>14 Sai no Haha</i>, though that's more of a family drama than a melodrama. Still, when a good melo comes around, it's usually not one to miss.<br />
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<b>Watch it For...</b><br />
A short, sad, and pure high school love story that encapsulates the insecurity of first love in a less-than-ideal environment.<br />
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<b>Out of 10...</b><br />
9/10 - A must-see!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Images via <a href="http://dramacrazy.net/">(1)</a> <a href="http://mydramalist.info/">(2)</a> <a href="http://tokyohive.com/">(3)</a> <a href="http://tumblr.com/">(4)</a> <a href="http://epdrama.com/">(5)</a></span>adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-65368574514483530552012-12-15T18:41:00.000-05:002012-12-15T18:41:07.329-05:00Weekly Wrap-up: week of 12/9 - 12/15<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, I'm back in full form by now, though I have to add a disclaimer to that by mentioning that I'm a little sick right now. I have to take antibiotics, which I never react well to, but the good news is that I'm at home with the family for Christmas, and that affords me some recovery time before I head back to school.<br />
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I figured I needed a place for ramblings and decided I'd start doing a weekly wrap-up type post. There's no guarantee these will be consistent, but I'll post them as the need arises.<br />
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Just a few notes for this week:<br />
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1. <b>Blog-related:</b> Yayyyyy the final recap for TTBY is finally up! I literally went through Hell and high water to get that thing out, but now I can rest easy and move on to <i>Switch Girl!!</i> Episode 2 for that will be up in the coming days, I believe. I'm also trying to finish up a few dramas that I dropped a while back, so maybe I'll write reviews for those as they come up.<br />
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2. <b>Completely Weird and Random: </b>I had a dream earlier this week and I don't remember much of it now, but one thing that stands out vividly in my memory is a scene in which I got kissed by <b>Taecyeon</b>. You know... the hot one who speaks English? Yeah? And then I pulled a TOTAL K-drama heroine move, all wide-eyed and frozen... and then promptly ran away. Yeah. I don't even know.<br />
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3. <b>Exciting and Unrelated: </b>CHOON-HYANG IS ON <a href="http://dramafever.com/">DRAMAFEVER</a>. Holy hell I've been waiting for someone to buy the rights to this baby so I could watch it in GOOD quality for the first time ever. <i>Delightful Girl Choon-hyang </i>is my second favorite Hong Sisters drama and I hold it near and dear to my heart. It's the drama that made me fall in love with <b>Jae Hee </b>and my cousin realize that Korean Drama was nothing to scoff at. It pays to come back to Dramaland and find surprises like this.<br />
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Okay, so that's the first ever Weekly Wrap-Up. I'm sure in the future it'll have more relevant and so-called "important" information, but for now I just wanted to gush, lol.adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-15114367158636847062012-12-15T17:30:00.000-05:002013-06-24T23:11:13.532-04:00To the Beautiful You: Episode 16 Recap (FINAL)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Wooooooo. We did it! We made it to the end without tearing our eyes out! That probably had a lot to do with all the pretty boys, but <i>To the Beautiful You</i> certainly proved to be this year's token "Little Drama that Thought it Could but Really Couldn't." Not a great place to be, but at least it looked nice, right? And it didn't make me as angry as <i>Big</i>, which is <i>definitely </i>saying something.<br />
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Watch TTBY Episode 16 on <a href="http://www.dramafever.com/drama/4136/16/To_the_Beautiful_You/?ap=1/?utm_source=hasoffers&utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=Adverseffects&utm_campaign=affiliate&offer_id=12&aff_id=234">DramaFever</a>!<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><br />Episode 16 Recap</b><br />
It's the morning before the competition, and Jae-hee pulls a reluctant Tae-joon out of bed and then makes him breakfast. After this, he heads out for a run, running into Hyun-jae outside.<br />
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The boys race each other and then go to the gym for training, where Tae-joon gives Hyun-jae some pointers about his jumping. As they talk, Tae-joon takes note of Hyun-jae's old jumping shoes, all sorts of worn out and torn up.<br />
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Meanwhile, Jae-hee pays Dr. Jang a visit to ask about how to give Tae-joon a leg massage. It takes some convincing, but Doc eventually gives in and starts to teach her about the muscles in the leg. When asked whether her chest bindings are still giving her issue, Jae-hee assures him she's gotten used to it by now.<br />
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Han-na gets released from the hospital and Seung-ri pays her another visit. She asks him to tell her something interesting, so Seung-ri relays the rumor about there being a girl at Genie. Han-na perks up at this and asks Seung-ri how he'll figure out whether the rumor's true or not.<br />
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Seung-ri shrugs, and explains that he'll probably just make the guys in his dorm train shirtless. That way, the girl is sure to be exposed. Han-na bursts out that he can't do that--and then covers quickly by going on to say that the boys could catch cold running around shirtless.<br />
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Seung-ri misinterprets her exclamation as concern for him, and smiles at the thought. Aw. He goes through another gag in an effort to make her laugh, and finds his efforts are successful this time around as Han-na bursts out laughing.<br />
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Back at school, Jae-hee overhears some guys talking about the girl rumor and becomes uncomfortable. Tae-joon tells her not to worry, because he'll protect her from anything. Sweet. The conversation turns to Eun-gyul, and Jae-hee admits they haven't hung out in a while, and she hasn't been in touch with him either.<br />
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Tae-joon figures Eun-gyul would put on a happy face regardless of what's going on and advises her to leave things as they are.<br />
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Later, Eun-gyul himself asks Jae-hee to accompany him shoe shopping. Tae-joon invites himself along for the trip, partly because he doesn't want his lady love spending the afternoon in the company of another man, but he's also got ulterior motives--he wants to buy Hyun-jae a new pair of shoes to replace his ripped up pair.<br />
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Hilariously, as Jae-hee and Tae-joon put their heads together to discuss a pair of jumping shoes, Eun-gyul hops right in between them to break up their little party. The hijinks continue as, while they're eating ddukboki, Puppy realizes he and Jae-hee are both wearing the couple shirts he'd bought a while back. This naturally makes Tae-joon cranky, and he excuses himself in the middle of dinner.<br />
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Turns out, he felt a little left out of the loop, because he presents Jae-hee with a new bag to match his own when they return to school. Haha, couple backpacks, huh? Subtle. He tells her to use it everyday, and she promises she will.<br />
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He gets ready to head to bed after this, which is when Jae-hee offers to give him a leg massage. He tells her it's fine--she really doesn't have to, but she pushes him onto the bed anyway. As she starts to massage his legs, he looks up at her with a horrified expression, his heart beating a mile a minute, until he finally can't take it anymore and sits up.<br />
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Tae-joon tells her firmly that while they're in the dorm room, Jae-hee's to stay at least one meter away from him at all times. She refuses, but he won't budge. He excuses himself and leaves the room.<br />
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Hilariously, the next morning when Doc walks into the infirmary, he finds Tae-joon sleeping on one of the patient beds. Tae-joon defends himself by saying it's more comfortable there. UH HUH. Jae-hee questions him about his whereabouts when he returns to the dorm room, as a good girlfriend should. Haha.<br />
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Tae-joon and Hyun-jae have another nice moment in the locker room later that day. Hyun-jae's pretty confident that the prodigy jumper everyone's been talking about is no match for him, and that TJ will definitely beat him and make it to the Olympics.<br />
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Tae-joon disagrees a little, telling him they'll go to the Olympics together, since he has no intention of going alone. He presents Hyun-jae with the new shoes, and Hyun-jae stares at him, touched at the gesture.<br />
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It's the morning of Tae-joon's departure for the comp after this, and Jae-hee helps him pack his bag. She finds the shoelaces she'd given him already inside, and makes him promise to jump well. Tae-joon stands up to leave, and Jae-hee promises not to be late on competition day.<br />
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He walks out, but Jae-hee runs him down before he can make it out of the room and plants a surprise kiss on him, making him drop his bag in shock. She pulls back, citing the 1m rule, and Tae-joon turns to go again. Adorably, he runs back in a second later to grab his bag off the floor, stuttering for her not to be late. So awkwardly cute. Haha.<br />
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Outside, Teacher Lee presents Coach Baek with a container of food, blowing it off as leftovers. Even so, Baek is giddy at the thought that she might care after all and takes it happily. He suggests they carpool from now on, since he moved into her part of town last week because he wanted to carpool with her. Haha. Teacher Lee tries (and fails) to keep a smile off her face.<br />
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On the way out of the city, Tae-joon texts Eun-gyul asking him to keep an eye on Jae-hee. At the same time, he receives a message from Han-na, telling him she's headed to rehab, wishing him luck at his competition, and tacking on a question about whether Jae-hee's okay. He assures her Jae-hee's fine, and thanks her for worrying.<br />
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Meanwhile at Genie, our leading lady is suffering from some increased "breast strain" again, which is further irritated when Seung-ri pushes her too much at track practice. She collapses in the hall afterward, and when the boys go to unbutton her shirt to allow her to breathe a bit, they find her bindings, cluing them (and Seung-ri) in on who the real dorm traitor is.<br />
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Angry, Seung-ri texts Eun-gyul asking him whether he knew and Puppy sprints across campus to meet up with him. He admits he knew about Jae-hee, and when asked if anyone else knew, Eun-gyul gives up Tae-joon's name.<br />
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Seung-ri is rightfully very angry, and wonders whether Eun-gyul realizes this means they'll all be expelled. Eun-gyul replies that it doesn't matter. Seung-ri kicks a trashcan.<br />
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<br />
Jae-hee wakes up at the infirmary a little while later, and Doc tells her it's probably time to give up the charade. She's been at Genie long enough, and this wasn't her mistake to have made. Eun-gyul swings by the visit her, and Jae-hee cries, asking him over and over what she should do.<br />
<br />
Seung-ri spends some time at the gym to cool off, and he thinks back to a conversation he had with Jae-hee. She'd made him promise not to involve Eun-gyul and Tae-joon, and had vowed to take full responsibility for her actions. Even in his anger, Seung-ri had managed to ask about her health, and all Jae-hee could manage to eek out was, "I'm sorry, Sunbae."<br />
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<br />
The news that Jae-hee's the girl spreads like wildfire through the school and eventually gets around to Young-man and Chul-soo. Jae-hee is ostracized from the other guys, and everyone stares at her as she walks through campus. But have no fear, Puppy is here!<br />
<br />
Eun-gyul saves her from the stares of her classmates and drags Jae-hee back to the dorm room. He promises he won't let her leave like this.<br />
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<br />
Young-man and Chul-soo head over to the teachers' lounge/office, but Seung-ri runs up at the last minute, wishing to talk with them. He asks the pair of sunbaes to keep the Jae-hee thing a secret, offering to take responsibility for all of it himself. Since the problem arose in his dorm, he wants to see it through to the end.<br />
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When he returns to the dorms, Jae-hee's outside waiting for him. By this time, Seung-ri's anger has fizzled out, and he tells her he'll keep her identity a secret from the rest of the school. With a reassuring pat on the shoulder, he tells her not to worry and to get some rest instead.<br />
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<br />
Jae-hee pays Dr. Jang another visit to let him know she's decided to leave Genie. He tells her she should watch Tae-joon's comp before she goes, but she refuses, explaining she's going to head out after the first round ends because if she stayed to see it, she wouldn't be able to make herself leave. She begins to cry, and softening up for the first time, Doc puts an arm around her shoulder and tells her things will get better as time goes by.<br />
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<br />
Tae-joon calls her later while she's packing up her things and asks her why he hasn't been able to reach her all day. He tells her he misses her, and she half-heartedly banters back. Even so, that's enough to clue him into the cracks in her voice, and he asks whether there's something wrong.<br />
<br />
Jae-hee assures him she's fine--it's just that Seung-ri pushed her around too much at practice, that's all. Just then, Coach Baek calls over to Tae-joon, and so he goes to hang up, promising to be up late so she should call him if she gets scared being alone. Jae-hee tells him to go to bed early and they hang up, but the tears keep falling even after she disconnects the call.<br />
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<br />
Later, she makes the walk of shame through the halls after turning in her transfer forms. The guys stare at her as she walks back to the dorms, but Eun-gyul manages to catch up with her again and pulls her outside. He wants to know whether it's true that she's leaving, and Jae-hee confirms his fears.<br />
<br />
Eun-gyul tells her again that he won't let her leave like this--there has to be another way, and he'll do his best to find it. Jae-hee pulls him into a hug, and Eun-gyul protests that he just wants her to stay by his side. She can only apologize, and he walks away, frustrated.<br />
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At the competition, Tae-joon has a brilliant training session, and Coach Baek tells him and Hyun-jae to take a break and get some rest. It's as the boys are heading back to their rooms to do just that when Tae-joon spots Jae-hee.<br />
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She explains that she missed him, which is why she decided to pay a visit. Jae-hee tries to leave after this, because, you know, that's what she does, but TJ stops her, asking her to go somewhere with him.<br />
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The pair of them head out for a Last Supper type date, which involves romantic bike riding, hand holding, and spontaneous kisses by fountains, with Jae-hee wearing a "Someone kicked my puppy" expression on her face all the while.<br />
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<br />
They sit down on a park bench and, when TJ catches her staring at him, he teases her, wondering whether she finds him handsome. She replies (a little sadly) that there's no way to describe it--he's her miracle and every day spent with him is a miracle too. Tae-joon, genius that he is, senses the cracks in her voice, but when he asks her what's wrong, she answers with an evasive, "It's late and I have to get back" comment.<br />
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She rushes off on her bike, but he's quick to catch up, and plants a kiss.<br />
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<br />
They arrive at the bus stop, where he tells her to come early the next morning. Jae-hee promises, and then asks to shake his hand, telling him the equivalent of, "Be well" or "Take care of yourself," which, as TJ points out, is an odd comment if they're to see each other the next day.<br />
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<br />
Jae-hee shakes her head, brushing it off as nothing special. Honestly, she could paste a sign on her head with the words, "Sayonara, sucker! Here's to never seeing you again," and he'd still scratch his head in confusion. Talk about oblivious.<br />
<br />
Anyway, Jae-hee can't seem to bring herself to leave, and turns back for a hug when the bus arrives. Tae-joon hugs her, surprised, and then pulls her away to ask (again) what's wrong. She explains that she hates parting with him. Aw. TJ assures her they'll meet again the next day, and Jae-hee finally gets on the bus.<br />
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<br />
It's D-Day the next morning, and we get a montage of memories as Jae-hee looks around the dorm room. She heads out after this, dragging her bag across campus on her way to the parking lot. As she's walking, Seung-ri calls out to her in his usual "Hey, Transfer Student!"<br />
<br />
She stops and turns around to find a gaggle of guys from Dorm 2 standing behind Seung-ri. He calls her by name, finally, and then sticks out his hand for a shake, making Jae-hee promise not to forget them because they definitely won't forget her.<br />
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<br />
She searches around for Eun-gyul, who's conspicuously missing. The boys say goodbye, and Jae-hee bids them farewell with a smile on her face.<br />
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She continues on her trek to the parking lot, which I'm thinking must be a mile or two away, good gosh, when she hears Eun-gyul's characteristic, "Squishy!" He runs over to her with Sang-chu in tow.<br />
<br />
Eun-gyul grumbles out that he wasn't going to come see her off. Jae-hee pulls him in for a hug and thanks him. Eun-gyul asks her whether she's really not going to see Tae-joon before she goes, and Jae-hee replies in the affirmative, explaining that it's just better this way.<br />
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<br />
Holding on to the urge to cry, Eun-gyul manages to joke that him being here isn't a sign of his forgiveness. He'll see her again and get his revenge. Jae-hee smiles: "I'll be waiting." She sticks around for a lingering second, and then finally walks off.<br />
<br />
Eun-gyul waits until she's down the hill before he makes a call to Tae-joon (who's been waiting for a call from Jae-hee all morning). He explains that even though Jae-hee didn't want Tae-joon to know, Eun-gyul figured it would be best to tell him--Jae-hee left for America.<br />
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<br />
Without another word to anyone, Tae-joon makes a break for the locker room and begins packing up all his stuff. Hyun-jae barrels in after him, reminding him that it's just minutes before the beginning of the comp. But TJ's beyond hearing silly things like that, and continues trying to leave.<br />
<br />
Hyun-jae grabs Tae-joon's bag, and out spills Jae-hee's diary--the one she'd been looking for the day before. Tae-joon opens the diary and finds all the records that Jae-hee had made of his jumps. Landing on the last page, he finds a drawing of him clearing the 2m 31cm mark.<br />
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<br />
Meanwhile, Jae-hee's on a bus headed to the airport. The passenger beside her is watching the competition on her phone and Jae-hee borrows an ear bud to listen in. Tae-joon's up for his next jump, and there's a close-up of him tying Jae-hee's red shoelace.<br />
<br />
He readies himself for the jump, putting a hand to his heart as Jae-hee watches on in the bus. He runs up and flies over the pole, clearing it for a winning jump of 2m 31cm. Jae-hee can't help the happy tears that roll down her face as she exclaims ecstatically for his win.<br />
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<br />
Meanwhile, Tae-joon is assaulted on the field by the paparazzi and he manages to yell out to Jae-hee to wait for him. Wait for him, because he'll come to see her.<br />
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<br />
The screen fades to white and we find ourselves a year later in California. Jae-hee's back to being a girl, full-time, and she spends this particular afternoon walking her dog around the neighborhood. She heads home to find an email from Eun-gyul waiting for her--it's a video letter.<br />
<br />
In the video, Eun-gyul explains that he hasn't been able to email her since he's been so busy with the National Team. He assures her they're all doing well--that Coach Baek and Teacher Lee are engaged to be married the following year, and Seung-ri's become a slave for Han-na. They're dating, but it's supposed to be a "secret relationship." In other news, Dr. Jang suddenly made the decision to move to Paris to study fashion and left Genie.<br />
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<br />
Eun-gyul finishes up with a request for Jae-hee to email often. Just as she thinks the video's over ("Huh? What about Tae-joon?"), Eun-gyul tacks on a passing comment that Tae-joon has decided to travel somewhere during the upcoming vacation--Jeju Island, or something like that. He bids Jae-hee goodbye and the video ends.<br />
<br />
Jae-hee's one-track mind continues to muse about Tae-joon after this, as she wonders what he's been up to. She drops her diary and bends down to pick it up. A shadow falls over her as she does, and she glances up to find Tae-joon himself standing before her.<br />
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<br />
He grins down at her: "I told you I was going to come see you, didn't I?" Jae-hee stands up and TJ pulls her in for a hug.<br />
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<br />
<b>Thoughts</b><br />
Well, it only took a couple months, but here we are! Now for a short, sweet analysis, because there's no point in beating a dead horse, right?<br />
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It's not necessarily that the writer dropped the ball in the last episode so much as it is that he just had too many things to resolve and not enough time in which to do it all. There were a lot of threads that got dropped between Episode 15 and Episode 16: Tae-joon's big bad interview with Reporter Yang never had any repercussions with the media <i>or </i>Director Jang; Eun-gyul bought that hairpin for Jae-hee that never really amounted to anything; Jong-min and Director Jang, who were staple characters in the beginning, got written out of the story in favor of other side plots; and Tae-joon's rival for the national competition (that new high jumper that Baek was warning him about) was mentioned only as a passing reference in this episode which, again, begs the question of why it was included in the first place, other than to create empty dramatic tension. It's just that whole plot sense thing that the writer didn't seem to be familiar with, lol.<br />
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Tragically, the drama suffered from chronic under-utilization of its characters, with the most interesting ones of the lot getting the least amount of screen time. That's really a shame, since the source material afforded so many colorful (though admittedly 2D) personalities that the writer had a lot of leg room to create interesting side plots. Instead, everything about the side characters was either glossed over, forgotten, or altogether omitted.<br />
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<br />
Speaking of characters, let's talk about our leads for a second. I think Eun-gyul wins for most-developed character, and <b>Lee Hyun-woo </b>wins for best acting. <b>Kim Ji-won</b> held her own, but her character was so flat that she couldn't really show her talent. <b>Minho </b>was certainly more comfortable in the second half than he was at the outset, and Tae-joon was more likable in the latter half as well. As for <b>Sulli</b>, I commend her for making an easily unlikable character more endearing, though she left a lot to be desired (especially as the female lead).<br />
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I won't get into plot and plot sensibility because there really was none of that in this show, and talking about it will only serve to bring all its flaws to light. What the show did succeed in was beautiful lighting and cinematography, but as I said before, I'll attribute that (and its gorgeous scenery and sets) to SM's massive budget. The acting was really on the green side, but TTBY did what it set out to do--bring these kids into the acting arena through their own vehicle. I'm sure Lee Hyun-woo and Kim Ji-won might be wishing they'd never signed on, but it was cute while it lasted!<br />
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As a side note, I did say I'd get this recap out even if it killed me, so here you are! :)<br />
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adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-26617127780312949102012-12-10T16:30:00.003-05:002012-12-10T16:30:58.139-05:00Binnie's back, and so am I!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><br /></b>
<b>Hyun Bin</b>, <i>the </i>Hyun Bin, was released from his 21-month military enlistment on the 6th, to a large audience of journalists and fans. He was clearly happy to be back, even shedding a few tears. I think it's safe to say we're happy to have him back as well, right?<br />
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On that note, I'm happy to report that I'm also back from my extended hiatus. I'm currently trying to play catch-up with the on-air dramas, including <i>Can We Get Married?</i>, <i>School 2013</i>, and <i>Alice in Cheongdamdong. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
In the meanwhile, I'll be posting a couple of reviews and some long overdue recaps, so hang tight!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.allkpop.com/2012/12/hyun-bin-discharged-from-military-sheds-tears-as-he-discusses-acting">allkpop</a></span>adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-54824132040878931472012-11-25T22:07:00.000-05:002012-11-25T22:07:31.294-05:00A word after an extended, unannounced [I'M SO SORRY] hiatus...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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*peeks in nervously*<br />
<br />
Hi... y'all. I'm back? Well, I'm back-ish. I'm so, so terribly sorry I disappeared off the face of the planet for a month and a half. I assure you, I am alive and kicking (for now), but I had a pretty rough mid-semester crisis that involved an immediate family member being in the hospital.<br />
<br />
In the interim, I turned 22 (yay!) and was swamped with schoolwork, but the school semester's winding down next week, so I should be able to head back down the Dramaland rabbit hole after that.<br />
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Again, I apologize for going away without saying anything, but dramas were really one of the last things on my mind as I drove up and down from school for my family. I hope you'll forgive me :/<br />
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I've missed you! Hopefully when I come back, I can finally crank out that long overdue final recap for TTBY and get started on the backlog of new dramas that I've neglected since I've been gone, plus catching up on some of those <i>Switch Girl!!</i> recaps I promised you. *sigh* It's good to get back to the craziness!adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-40911971384032134182012-10-14T21:18:00.001-04:002012-10-14T21:18:27.105-04:00Quick Note: 10/14/12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Hey, guys! Time for another quick note.<br />
<br />
Sorry about the seriously long delay on the last TTBY recap. It's no longer even relevant to the drama conversation because it ended like a week and a half ago, but I've had a lot going on, with balancing school and family being in town. So... the recap is slowly but surely being written and should (hopefully) be up some time this week.<br />
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Again, so sorry for the long wait. I don't know if anyone will read it now, but I hope it's worth your time if you do! Thanks!adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-67578066086216640662012-10-10T21:29:00.000-04:002012-10-10T21:34:54.019-04:00Casting Round-up: 10/10/12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Normally, I avoid posting casting rumors until they've been confirmed, so this news update comes on the heels of a few stories that were announced days ago, but also which I wanted to wait to post until they were absolutely verified. They're all very, very exciting, and I'm <i>finally </i>looking forward to a few winter dramas. I thought the landscape was going to be completely dry, but here's to hoping these couple pan out!<br />
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<a name='more'></a><b>Yoon Eun-hye cast as lead for <i>I Miss You </i>opposite Park Yoochun<br /></b><br />
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<br />
So, everyone's been worried about the follow-up drama to <i>Arang and the Magistrate</i>, melodrama <i>I Miss You</i>, which is only three weeks away from its premiere and only <i>just </i>announced its casting for the female lead. A slew of names were thrown around, but eventually <b>Yoon Eun-hye </b>signed on and we're now gearing up for the first episode coming up soon.<br />
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The story covers the life of two people who fall in love as teenagers who are torn apart by circumstances, only to meet and fall in love again as adults. It sounds like every melo ever, but apparently the lead characters are both described as lighthearted and happy despite their tragic pasts. <b>Yoochun</b>'s Han Jung-woo is a violent crimes detective, and YEH's Lee Soo-yeon is a talented fashion designer.<br />
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As far as pairing YEH and Yoochun goes, I'm not sure how it'll work out. Especially in a melo. I know Yoochun's done "serious" roles before (namely <i>Miss Ripley</i>), and YEH's range beats a lot of young actors today, but together... I don't know. Still, I'm intrigued enough to tune in, so I'll probably check out the first episode. Oh, and more incentive to at least watch the first few episodes? <b>Yeo Jin-gu </b>(<i>The Moon that Embraces the Sun</i>) and <b>Kim So-hyun </b>(<i>Ma Boy</i>, <i>The Moon that Embraces the Sun</i>) will be playing Yoochun and YEH's teenage counterparts. Adorbs!<br />
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<i>I Miss You </i>premieres on Wednesday, October 31st on MBC.<br />
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via (<a href="http://asianwiki.com/">1</a>) (<a href="http://dramabeans.com/">2</a>) (<a href="http://fanpop.com/">3</a>)<br />
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<b>Joo-won for <i>The Secret Lovers War<br /></i></b><br />
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<b><i><br /></i></b>
The man with the Midas touch can do no wrong. Only just coming off his <i>Bridal Mask </i>high, <b>Joo-won </b>already has his next project lined up, a spy rom com by the name of <i>The Secret Lovers War/Secret Agent War</i>. The story's based on the movie <i>Level 7 Civil Servant, </i>which starred <b>Kang Ji-hwan </b>and <b>Kim Haneul</b>. Joo-won will be playing Gil-ro, our hero who decided at a very young age that he wanted to be a spy after watching a James Bond movie.<br />
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His leading lady hasn't been cast yet, but this sounds like lots of fun. Apparently, the story revolves around this main character who's a newbie spy and makes tons of mistakes on the job. He falls in love with a woman (also a secret agent) and they must keep their true identities from each other. Sounds a bit like <i>Mr. and Mrs. Smith</i>, but considering it's a rom com, I'm hoping it'll be more goofy fare than that.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The Secret Lovers War </i>premieres in January.<br />
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via (<a href="http://asianwiki.com/">1</a>) (<a href="http://blog.dramafever.com/">2</a>) (<a href="http://dramabeans.com/">3</a>)<br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b>Bae Yong-joon gives the <i>School </i>franchise a re-vamp with Kim Woo-bin and Lee Yubi<br /></b><br />
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<b><br /></b>
Yonsama's at it again--if one project fails, just get up and try it a different way. On the heels of this year's (apparently awful) <i>Dream High 2</i>, <b>Bae Yong-joon</b>'s production company Keyeast/Contents K has announced they'll be producing a new high school drama--a remake of the 90s hit <i>School</i>.<br />
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If you know K-drama, the name probably sounds at least a <i>little </i>familiar. The <i>School </i>franchise in the 90s lasted four seasons and was the launching point of many a famous actor/actress including <b>Kim Rae-won</b>, <b>Kim Nam-gil</b>, <b>Jae Hee</b>, <b>Gong Yoo, Ha Ji-won</b>, <b>Lee Dong-wook</b>, <b>Choi Kang-hee</b>, <b>Jang Hyuk</b>, <b>Jo In-sung</b>, <b>Im Soo-jung</b>, <b>Ki Tae-young</b>, <b>Bae Doo-na</b>, and <b>Su Ae</b>, among others.<br />
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This revamp will star <b>Kim Woo-bin </b>(<i>To the Beautiful You</i>, <i>White Christmas</i>) and <b>Lee Yubi </b>(currently playing Maru's little sister Choco on <i>Nice Guy</i>) to begin with, and it'll be interesting to see which other fresh faces Yonsama will take on. Hopefully, <i>School 2012 </i>won't turn out the way <i>Dream High 2</i> did and will instead follow in the footsteps of that franchise's original title instead.<br />
<br />
<i>School 2012 </i>premieres in December on KBS, filling the Monday-Tuesday slot currently taken by <i>Oohlala Spouses</i>.<br />
<br />
via (<a href="http://dramabeans.com/">1</a>) (<a href="http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LS2D&mid=shm&sid1=106&sid2=225&oid=109&aid=0002424232">2</a>)<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Park Ki-woong cast as North Korean spy for <i>Covertness </i>alongside Kim Soo-hyun and Lee Hyun-woo<br /></b><br />
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This movie! Holy crap. My beloved oppa crush <b>Kim Soo-hyun </b>(<i>The Moon that Embraces the Sun</i>), along with my puppy crush <b>Lee Hyun-woo </b>(<i>To the Beautiful You</i>), and now <b>Park Ki-woong </b>too? There's little that could curb my enthusiasm for this movie at this point, honestly. I'm so stoked.<br />
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The plot covers the exploits of three North Korean spies who are dispatched to the south to take on the identities of normal citizens in a remote South Korean village. The boys are considered a handsome "flower boy trio" and characterized as such: an idiot, a wannabe idol boy, and a high school student. Kim will play the lead (and the wannabe idol boy), Won Ryu-hwan, an expert sniper fluent in five languages.<br />
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Announced last week,<b> </b>Park Ki-woong joins the cast to fill out the third leg of the spy trio alongside Kim and Lee. He's just coming off that same <i>Bridal Mask </i>high which rocketed him to a stardom he didn't have before. His next drama <i>Full House Take 2</i> also just recently landed a broadcast slot and premieres at the end of the month on SBS Plus. That might be a project he wants to bury, but hopefully <i>Covertness </i>will put him back in the public's good graces.<br />
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The story's based on a popular Daum web comic by writer HUN that was published from June 2010 until May 2011, and I'm hoping the source material affords lots of hilarious hijinks for these talented boys.<br />
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Filming is scheduled to start next week, on the 17th, with the premiere set for next year.<br />
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via (<a href="http://asianwiki.com/">1</a>) (<a href="http://dramabeans.com/">2</a>)adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-89340683453273496342012-10-04T21:50:00.000-04:002013-06-13T17:23:47.948-04:00Switch Girl!!: Episode 1 Recap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I went back and forth about doing recaps for this show since it aired last year, but with <i>To the Beautiful You </i>having finished, I'm quickly running out of things to watch and write about. Hence, here we are. This was <i>the </i>J-dorama of 2011/12 for me, even though I watched it this summer. It's got the right amount of hilarity coupled with romance and was a great watch.<br />
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I'll treat the recaps as if this is my first time watching the show. They'll be fairly short, I'm sure, since the episodes are only ~30 minutes long. I'll probably post them once a week, the way the show aired, but not necessarily on Saturdays. I had this one written for a while and figured I should post it, so here it is!<br />
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<b>Episode 1 Recap</b><br />
We open with a montage of questions to acquaint ourselves with the basic premise behind <i>Switch Girl!!. </i>Are you the type of girl who likes the smell of your socks after a hard day's work? When you run out of toothpaste, do you cut open the tube and scrape the inside with your toothbrush? If you answered yes to these questions, then you're a certified Switch Girl!<br />
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Meet TAMIYA NIKA (<b>Nishiuchi Mariya</b>), the epitome of a perfect schoolgirl in every way: she's beautiful, graceful, and friendly. Only... all of that is just a facade she puts on when she's around her classmates at school. In reality, Nika is a Switch Girl, and a pretty afflicted one at that.<br />
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When she comes home from school, she switches her uniform for sweats, her contacts for glasses, and her curly hair for awkward buns. She spends her time playing video games until dawn on the weekends, and reading manga in her "safety underwear"--the kind that's loose with strings coming out of it that no one will ever see.<br />
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On this particular morning, Nika arrives at school and is greeted by an onslaught of praises from her classmates for her latest magazine shoot. As they talk, one of the girls notices a funky smell, and Nika freezes. The girls blame it on the boys (of which there are only three or four in the whole class--and not very attractive ones, either), but they're not the culprits.<br />
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As the students argue, Nika sneaks out with her bag and races to the roof. She pulls out her bento to find it leaking through her bag. That's what had been causing the smell, but she wasn't about to let her friends find out she's the kind of girl who eats salted mackerel in her spare time. As she laments over the mess, someone places a hand on her shoulder.<br />
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Nika freezes and then slowly turns around, only to find NINO, her best friend, standing behind her. Nino complains to Nika about the smell of the bento, and then scolds her for farting out in the open right next to her as they get to eating their lunches. She warns Nika to make sure no one finds out about her OFF Mode (the way she is at home) and Nika noncommittally nods as she works through her bento.<br />
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By the end of the lunch hour, Nika's out cold, taking a nap on Nino's lap. She wakes up with a start and begins to fix her makeup, only then noticing that the pair of them are not alone on the roof anymore. On the far end of the rooftop stands a boy--a handsome one, and Nika asks Nino whether there are any boys like that at their school. Nino says she's never seen him before, which is even more odd.<br />
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This is KAMIYAMA ARATA (<b>Kiriyama Renn</b>). When Nika approaches him to introduce herself, however, he calls her annoying and completely blows her off, walking back into the school like no big deal. Never one to be rejected, Nika frets about the rude boy's identity, lamenting that such a hot guy could be so arrogant.<br />
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When she gets home that night, she complains to her older sister (also a Switch Girl) about the boy with the ugly personality. Onee-chan explains that arrogant guys like that usually only date shrewd girls. Soon after, Mom comes home bearing a gift of stamina booster free samples for Dad, haha.<br />
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Belatedly, she realizes she forgot to go to the market for cucumber. This is a problem, since today is "all-you-can-fit-into-a-bag" day. She sends Nika out on the errand.<br />
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"All-you-can-fit-into-a-bag" specials are treated like an Olympic sport, and Nika gets to filling when she arrives at the market. Beside her, a fellow shopper drops a couple of cucumbers in his bag and walks away to check out. This is taboo in Nika's book--who would someone waste money buying only a couple of cucumbers when they could have a bag of thirty for the same price?<br />
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She drags the guy back over and teaches him the art of cucumber-filling (stuff them in, one beside the other the long way after stretching the bag open). Unbeknownst to her, this is the same guy she met on the rooftop earlier that day--Arata. Neither of them recognizes each other since Arata is wearing thick specks and Nika's still dressed in her OFF Mode.<br />
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They walk out of the market together, and Nika tells the boy not to look so grumpy--after all, he's got a bag full cucumbers in his arms, doesn't he? She butt bumps him to try to cheer him up, letting out a fart in the process. HAHA. Arata looks at her like she's crazy, but Nika laughs it off as usual.<br />
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They arrive at her apartment building, and Arata begins to follow her up. She stops him, at this point a little freaked out, and wonders whether he's some kind of stalker. He calmly explains that, no, he's not a stalker--he lives in this building too, on the second floor. He just moved in yesterday. Nika cheerfully accepts this explanation and heads in, telling him to ask her if he needs help with anything.<br />
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The following day at school, the news has gotten around that Nika's class is supposed to get a new transfer student. The girls wonder whether he'll be good looking, and then figure that even if he is, he'll probably start swooning after Nika in no time. Meanwhile, the boys grumble that he hasn't even shown up, so they can't just <i>assume </i>he'll be handsome.<br />
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Either way, the speculation is interrupted when a girl rushes into the classroom and announces that the new kid is being harassed in the girls' bathroom by the Monkey Boss and her gang. Nika takes it upon herself to save the poor shmuck from some sure-to-be-humiliating prank and runs out to stop the Monkey Boss.<br />
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In fact, the Monkey Boss and Co. are a group of girls from the class over who fashion themselves the presiding rulers of the school, taking it as their job to make sure things run smoothly. The Monkey Boss herself considers Nika her number one rival and spends most of her time trying to one-up her.<br />
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So, Nika dashes off to the bathroom and finds Monkey Boss and Co. circling the poor new transfer student in the girls' bathroom, on a mission to drop his trousers to see what kind of underwear he's wearing. Only... when Nika gets a peek at the guy, she realizes it's the same bespectacled dude from the market the night before.<br />
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She freaks out, wondering what to do--if the guy realizes it's her, he could very well spill her secret to the rest of the class. She imagines what would happen if they knew the truth--they'd run her out of school and she'd cry in a gutter. Then, a stray dog would find her and just as she'd pick it up, thinking it was cute, it would bite her in the face and she'd have to be rushed to the hospital. HAHA. Even so, Nika knows it's too late to back out now--she's already promised everyone she'd save the guy.<br />
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But it seems the transfer student (A.K.A. Arata) has things handled, because as Nika readies herself to barge in, he pulls some quick moves and down go the girls' skirts, revealing <i>their </i>underwear, before they have a chance to pants <i>him</i>.<br />
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Nika takes the opportunity, while they're distracted trying to pull up their skirts, to dowse some kind of powder all over them. She grabs Arata's hand and they make a break for it before Monkey Boss and Co. can piece together what just happened.<br />
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Nika and Arata end up on the roof, still holding hands, and Nika drops his quickly. It's not long before he realizes it's her and calls her out on being the girl from the supermarket. They head back to class, where the teacher introduces the new guy to everyone. In the back, Nika frets over the fact that he now <i>knows </i>and could spill her secret at any moment.<br />
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She explains what happened to Nino, about Arata living in her apartment building and all, and Nino suggests that since Nika saved him from the Monkey Boss, Arata owes her and she should ask him to keep her secret. Nika figures that won't work, but that's not all... while they'd been on the roof, she's taken a good look at him and realized he was the arrogant guy from the day before. Indeed, when she'd pulled off his glasses, she'd verified that he was one and the same.<br />
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As she was freaking out about him being the same guy, she'd realized that his glasses were non-prescription. Meaning, he doesn't need them to see. She'd questioned him about that--why does he wear glasses if he doesn't have a vision problem? He'd refused to answer, telling her to give his glasses back.<br />
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That's when Nika'd had her brilliant idea--using his glasses as the bait, she'd asked him to keep her secret and not tell anyone about her Switch Girl personality. Arata had deduced that that must mean no one in the school knows what she's really like, and Nika had denied it, spilling that Nino knows. At this, she'd realized she'd by now told him every aspect of her secret and had started conjuring up another scenario of what would happen now that he knew.<br />
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Arata had cut her off before her thoughts got too out of hand, promising to keep her secret as long as she promised to keep his. She'd agreed immediately, but still couldn't shake her curiosity as to why he'd need to hide behind his glasses in the first place. He'd be popular if he didn't wear them. Arata had succinctly explained that he hates women, and had warned her not to get involved in his business anymore.<br />
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Back in class, Nino dryly teases Nika that this arrangement isn't going to work--Nika promised Arata she wouldn't tell anyone about his glasses, but here she is, spilling the secret to Nino. Nika frets some more, worried that Arata's secret is a blip on the radar, a sparkler in comparison to her huge one, like a tomahawk. If his secret comes out, it's no big deal, whereas hers is life-alteringly huge.<br />
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Nino cuts into her thoughts, telling Nika they've got bigger things to worry about. She points outside to the building over, where Monkey Boss is standing, watching them through binoculars. Nika stares out at her, wide-eyed, but promises that she'll take care of it.<br />
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Even so, Nino leans over to warn Arata--if the Monkey Boss sees him without his glasses on, he'll be harassed even more. Nika shushes her, groaning that Nino's just revealed the fact that she told her about Arata's secret. Arata sighs, "You already told someone?" Nika grimaces, apologizing.<br />
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She follows him home that evening, tracing his steps meekly and then pretending to look the other way every time he turns around. Eventually, Arata gets sick of this and tells her to stop following him. She catches up, explaining that she feels it necessary to apologize for telling Nino his secret. Without replying, he continues to walk on, and she runs after him, offended at being ignored.<br />
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Arata explains that he doesn't want to talk to a woman, and continues walking, but Nika cuts him off, "You talk to your mother, though, don't you?" He looks at her with a blank expression on his face and replies, "I don't have a mother," before walking off. Nika's smile falls and she realizes that that was probably something she shouldn't have asked.<br />
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As she's fretting over this, a guy runs up behind her and lifts up her skirt, snapping a picture with his digital camera. He runs off before Nika can stop him, but she calls him out on being a pervert, and Arata turns around at her cry. She yells for him to stop the guy, "He took a picture of my underwear! And it's my safety underwear, too!" Confused, Arata looks at her, "Safety underwear?"<br />
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Nika realizes the pervert's not wearing their school uniform, so she takes off after him. Still befuddled at the chaos, Arata has no choice but to follow. As she runs, Nika imagines what might happen if the pictures of her safety underwear are revealed at school: she's sure that once people found out, she'd lose the trust of her classmates and the necessary qualifications to be popular. In contrast, the Monkey Boss's popularity would rise, leading the whole school to turn into her minions, holding festivals in her honor and putting up posters of her around the school.<br />
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The pervert runs to a warehouse and calls his employer on the way--in fact, it's the Monkey Boss herself who hired him to take the picture. She tells him she'll be right over to collect it from him. At this point, we get the back story of why Monkey Boss (whose real name we find out is Reika) hates Nika so much.<br />
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Ever since she was little, Reika had been number one in everything--academics, sports, even beauty. But then, in high school, Nika had come along and stolen all that popularity. She'd had more friends, more beauty, and more boys running after her than Reika. Jealous of Nika stealing her Number 1 position, Reika had vowed revenge, which is how they got to where they are today.<br />
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Pervert Boy heads into the warehouse to wait for Monkey Boss (to whom I'll refer to as Reika from now on). He can't help but wonder what Nika's underwear looks like and turns on the camera to take a peek. Unfortunately for him, Arata finds him before he can, asking whether he's seen the picture yet, and then throws a swift punch right into Pervert Boy's kisser.<br />
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But today seems to be Pervert Boy's lucky day, because Nika finds them soon after and flies toward him for a kick, giving him a bird's eye view of the very underwear that got him into trouble in the first place. He goes down, and then Nika grabs him by the neck, declaring that perverts can only be dealt with in one way: she gives him a swift stomp to the family jewels.<br />
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Behind her, Arata cringes, telling her that no matter how hard she stomps on him there, it's going to hurt. She stops at this and turns to him, wondering, "Are you really gay?" Arata assures her he's not, but she steps into his bubble, teasing him anyway. He looks at her for a long moment before admitting, "How should I put it? You're... You're quite interesting."<br />
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He grins at her, and then starts to laugh, and Nika watches him, mesmerized. She thinks to herself that it's the first time she's seen him smile, and that it's a great one at that.<br />
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After a moment, Arata wanders over to unconscious Pervert Boy and retrieves his camera to take a look at the picture that caused all the trouble. "So, <i>this </i>is your safety underwear? This is a little extreme." He holds up the camera for her to see, and Nika freaks out, yelling at him not to look. She dives for the camera, but he holds it out of her reach, and they run around as he teases her about it.<br />
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<b>Comments</b><br />
A solid first episode to explain the setup and get us right into the character dynamics. Because this is such a short drama, we don't spend much time on the, "Where are we? What are our characters' lives like? Who are they?" questions that so many other shows may take the first couple of episodes to do. We delve straight into the heart of the matter so that we can spend the next seven episodes unraveling the story itself.<br />
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The first time I saw this drama, I didn't like Arata's character in the first half of this episode, if only because he like... doesn't <i>say </i>anything. He has barely two or three lines and they all make him seem like a complete prick. It wasn't until the second half, when Nika saves him from Reika's gang that I started warming up to him and also to Kiriyama Renn. By the last scene, I was practically drooling. For a guy who claims to hate women, he sure did give Pervert Boy a pretty solid punch to the jaw for trying to mess with Nika's virtue, lol.<br />
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Overall, I think it might take some time for new watchers of Japanese drama to get into the feel of this show. It's based on a manga and treated as such, even in the live format here. So, the over-the-top antics and crazy facial expressions by Nishiuchi Mariya may catch you off guard, but if you stick through it and wait a couple of episodes, the romance will start pulling you in more.<br />
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By the way, sorry if the screencaps look a bit grainy. I'm not sure what happened, because I have the video in 1080p. It might be my video player. I'll try to figure it out.<br />
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adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-87215723740230087572012-10-04T17:53:00.000-04:002013-06-24T23:09:44.059-04:00To the Beautiful You: Episode 15 Recap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last week, last week, last week!! We madeeeeee it. Today was a good episode (as it should be, since we're so close to the end), and it tugged my heartstrings in just the right way. People have thrown down their gauntlets and stepped up to face the challenges ahead of them (kind of...), so let's get on with it! Plus, there were TWO dates! Two. For a cardboard cutout of a character, this Jae-hee chick sure is lucky.<br />
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Watch TTBY Episode 15 on <a href="http://www.dramafever.com/drama/4136/15/To_the_Beautiful_You/?ap=1/?utm_source=hasoffers&utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=Adverseffects&utm_campaign=affiliate&offer_id=12&aff_id=234">DramaFever</a>!<br />
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<b>Episode 15 Recap</b><br />
Eun-gyul finds Jae-hee undressing in the bathroom and, forgetting his own bodily functions, doubles back out into the dorm room, understandably pissed off.<br />
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Jae-hee follows him out, trying to stop him leaving by apologizing and admitting that she should have told him much earlier, but he stands his ground, telling her: "What are you sorry for? Are you sorry for screwing with me like that? ...If you had felt even a little bad for me, if you had really taken me into consideration--if you had taken my confession even the slightest bit seriously... you wouldn't have done this."<br />
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Jae-hee can't do much but apologize continuously, which is something Eun-gyul isn't ready to hear just yet, and he shakes her off angrily. He leaves, telling her sadly, "I'm the one who misunderstood, yet here I am, yelling at you."<br />
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He storms back to his own dorm, where Hyun-jae is in the bathroom giving himself a pep talk. This self-psyching session is probably the reason he always takes so long--it's a list of 100 things that he goes through to prepare for practice. He walks out to find Eun-gyul and apologizes for taking so long in the bathroom. Eun-gyul blows up at him and then flops down on his bed to sulk.<br />
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Hyun-jae doesn't understand what's going on, so he apologizes again, and then awkwardly excuses himself to go to practice. Once he's gone, Puppy thinks back to all his times with Jae-hee, trying to figure out where he went wrong.<br />
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Tae-joon receives a text from Dad on his way to practice, talking about a plant in his office, and telling him to dress warmly because it'll be cold at night. After this, practice goes well, and he congratulates himself for making a jump.<br />
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Hyun-jae calls him out on his good mood, wondering whether something good happened to make him so happy, since his form and condition are on point. Tae-joon whacks him on the shoulder and teases, "Didn't you know? I always do well." Hyun-jae pats him back: "You did well." Tae-joon: "Of course I did well. Even <i>I </i>think I did well."<br />
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The celebrations are cut short when Coach Baek comes over to show them a video of a new jumper on the high jump scene--a guy whose record surpasses Tae-joon's.<br />
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Jae-hee tries to get a hold of Eun-gyul for the rest of the day, but he continues to screen her calls. By that night, she's outside at Sang-chu's house crying to him that she wants to remain by Tae-joon's side. This is how Tae-joon finds her a little while later.<br />
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He takes a seat beside her when it's clear she doesn't want to go back inside, and she quickly brushes away her tears. She asks him whether he remembers their first meeting there, when she'd crawled out of Sang-chu's house to give him a pep talk about not quitting high jumping. She admits she'd been pretty starstruck by him, unable to fathom that she was actually meeting <i>the </i>Kang Tae-joon.<br />
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Trailing off, Jae-hee looks up at him after a moment and finally drops the bomb we've been waiting <i>episodes </i>for her to drop: "To be honest... I'm a girl." She doesn't get the reaction she was expecting when he pulls her into a hug: "Thank you for coming into my life. I already knew about you being a girl."<br />
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He pulls back after a moment, tears shining on his own cheeks, as he confesses that he's known for a while but had been holding onto the knowledge for a long time, trying to be patient. Looking Jae-hee straight in the eye, Tae-joon admits again, "I'm sorry. Thank you. And also... Goo Jae-hee, I like you." He pulls her into another hug and they cry together.<br />
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Back in Eun-gyul's dorm, Hyun-jae gives Puppy a bottle of juice, apologizing again about the bathroom. Eun-gyul tells him it's fine, and that he's sorry for taking his anger out on the wrong person. Hyun-jae probably has an idea of what's ailing him, and asks again about Eun-gyul's love life.<br />
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Puppy answers as he did the last time, admitting that he doesn't really know, except now, it seems he's become angry at the person he likes. When asked why, he replies that the person lied to him. As tears start falling, he says,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The more I think about how that person could have done something like that... the angrier I get. All this time, it must have been hard on [her], since [she] didn't have anyone to talk to. But, like an idiot, I stood by [her] side, clueless. The fact that I couldn't help [her]... That's what makes me angry. But all of that wasn't because of me... It was because of another person. That's what makes me really angry. But what I'm most angry about... is myself--that I might not be able to forgive [her]. I'm angry because of me. I'm so angry it's driving me crazy." </blockquote>
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Aw, Puppy...<br />
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By the next morning, word starts to spread around the girls' school that a girl has infiltrated Genie as a student. Young-man happens to overhear a gaggle of Serin girls talking about it, and he mulls over the rumor with his posse.<br />
<br />
Jae-hee makes an attempt to talk to Eun-gyul in class that morning, but he continues to ignore her and storms out of the room, unable to be around her. Tae-joon sees the exchange and follows Puppy into the hall, telling him they need to have a talk.<br />
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The two boys head outside, where Tae-joon asks whether Eun-gyul and Jae-hee got into a fight. Eun-gyul tiredly tells him it's none of his business, wondering when Tae-joon started caring about him so much, but Tae-joon argues that it's Jae-hee he's worried about, because Jae-hee has enough on her plate already without having to worry about Eun-gyul too.<br />
<br />
He wonders how Eun-gyul could cause her trouble like this, when in the past, it was Eun-gyul who'd warned Tae-joon not make things hard on her. Without wasting time, Eun-gyul stares him in the eye and asks, "Do you already know everything? You were the first to find out, weren't you? ...That Goo Jae-hee is a girl."<br />
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Tae-joon doesn't have a quick answer, and he hesitates before confirming Puppy's suspicions. <span style="background-color: white;">Eun-gyul asks him angrily how he could keep that from him--especially when Tae-joon knew Eun-gyul had feelings for Jae-hee: "If you'd given me a hint... if you'd just whispered it in my ear... then it wouldn't be as hard as it is for me now." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">Tae-joon argues that he had no other choice but to act like he didn't know, but this doesn't seem to be a good enough answer, and Eun-gyul storms off, telling him, "I thought you were at least my friend. I'm sorry for assuming that on my own."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">Jae-hee finds him moping in their usual spot (the laundry room), and she uses his own sock puppet trick to try and cheer him up, apologizing once again: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;">"Cha Eun-gyul... I'm sorry. I definitely wanted you to be the first to know. Really! Please believe me. If it wasn't for you... I doubt I would have lasted even a day. You were a big help to me.Whenever things got hard, I just wanted to give up. It was because of you that I was able to put up with it. So, Eun-gyul, can't you forgive me?" </span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white;">It doesn't work, and Eun-gyul walks off without a word.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">In a cute little side sub-plot for the episode, Teacher Lee gets into a little tiff with Coach Baek when she sees him talking to Reporter Yang. The normally nice Coach Baek turns into a jerk to Reporter Yang when he sees Teacher Lee watching them, but it's too late and the damage is done. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">So, when he approaches Teacher Lee in the teacher's lounge to ask her out for a meal, she purposely calls Dr. Jang right in front of him to ask him out, telling Coach Baek to have lunch with Reporter Yang instead. Haha. These two are adorable.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Tae-joon comes home to find Jae-hee lost in thought as she folds his laundry. He sits down in front of her, telling her not to keep doing his laundry like this. She brushes it off as nothing, replying that she likes helping him out.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">Cautiously, Tae-joon breaches the subject of Eun-gyul and whether she's been sad lately because of him. Jae-hee doesn't deny it, but explains that Eun-gyul found out she's a girl and that he seems pretty angry and must feel betrayed. Tae-joon assures her that Eun-gyul's a nice enough guy that he'll forgive her soon enough. She nods, but tells him all the same that she doesn't know what to do.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Adorably trying to lift her spirits, Tae-joon pouts: "So... you're saying you spent the whole day thinking about Eun-gyul?" He admits that he might be getting jealous. Jae-hee laughs it off, and then the conversation turns to how his practice went. He assures her that it shouldn't be a problem, but that there's a new guy on the scene with a record better than his own.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">When she falters at this news, he teasingly accuses her of having no faith in him. She assures him that's not the case, even claiming she'd bet her inheritance on him clinching the win. He gets ready to go work out again, and when she asks him why, he laughs, telling her he's got her inheritance to protect. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">On his way out, he tells her that the best way for her to help him is to stay by his side because he won't be able to jump without her. She smiles, promising to do just that.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">The rumor about a girl at Genie continues to spread through the ranks like wildfire, eventually getting around to Seung-ri. Young-man bets that the traitor is probably staying in Dorm 2 (considering the other two dorms have all seen each other sans clothes before), but Seung-ri brushes it off, calling it impossible. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Young-man tells him that's why they should check--just to make sure. Taking him by the shoulder, Seung-ri warns him that if he even tries, he'll be dead. Young-man takes this as a declaration of war. Oye vey.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">Meanwhile, Tae-joon asks Jae-hee to go out with him and they have a date at the aquarium. Adorably, Jae-hee fixes her hair as she waits for him to get tickets (all the while assuring herself just to be comfortable), and he stops to stare for a moment when he sees her. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">He walks up and she links her arm through his, taking him by surprise. Sensing his awkwardness, Jae-hee starts to slip her arm back out, but Tae-joon grabs her hand and places it back on his arm.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">They walk around, looking at the various animals, getting awkward when they see a couple hugging in front of them. When they arrive at the penguin exhibit, there's a big crowd blocking their view, so Tae-joon takes Jae-hee's hand and pulls up to the front. He takes his place behind her, his hands on her shoulders. </span><br />
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As they walk back to the bus stop that night, Tae-joon prevents Jae-hee from being bumped by passersby and she makes the observation that it's weird for him to be so nice. He blows it off, telling her he's always this nice, and self-assured that there's nothing he can do wrong, but Jae-hee scoffs, mumbling that there were plenty of times he made her feel crappy.<br />
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He stops, asking her how many times, and she laughs it off as a joke, but it gets him thinking and he asks her if there was a time he'd made her the most upset. The requisite Kdrama, "Omg, I was a jerk? No way. God, I feel horrible. How have I wronged you, my love?" conversation. I love these.<br />
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Jae-hee admits it was the night he'd bailed early from the camping trip and come back into the city with Han-na. She'd waited for him a long time, but promises that she understood why he'd had to leave after she heard what happened. Tae-joon gets a completely scandalized expression on his face, but after a moment, he grabs her hand, dragging her to an outdoor equipment store.<br />
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They walk around for a bit, before finally stopping in front of a camp site set-up. Tae-joon buys it and they set up camp at school. Jae-hee makes him s'mores (which he finds delicious, naturally), and he wonders out loud what they would have talked about if they'd been together at the campsite that night.<br />
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Jae-hee figures they probably would have talked about the oppa who taught her how to make s'mores, and Tae-joon frowns at that: "You don't mean that John Kim or whatever person, do you?" Jae-hee laughs as he grumbles that the s'mores don't taste so good anymore. Lol.<br />
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Changing the subject, Tae-joon tells Jae-hee that he used to go camping a lot when he was younger, and about how much fun it is to camp in the winter. She admits she's never been camping in the winter, and he suggests they go together the next time. She wishes wistfully to be able to do that with him, but doesn't know if she'll still be around then.<br />
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Tae-joon explains that there's still a lot he wants to show her and do with her, but that if they want to get through the list, she'll have to stick by him for a long time yet. She smiles enthusiastically, grabbing his hand as she tells him she wants to do all that with him. They get awkward again for a moment, but he clutches her hand in his, promising to do everything with her. She nods happily.<br />
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Reporter Yang spends the next day's high jump practice snapping pictures of Tae-joon and Hyun-jae, and then conveniently hears some boys talking about the girl-at-Genie rumor when she's in the bathroom. This gets her thinking, and she begins to notice Jae-hee and Tae-joon's chumminess on the field during athletic team practice that afternoon.<br />
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She approaches Jae-hee after practice to ask her whether she's heard that there's a girl hiding in the school, and Jae-hee stutters out that she has no idea what Reporter Yang is talking about. The annoying journalist continues to pester her until Tae-joon walks up, saving Jae-hee from more prodding.<br />
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Eun-gyul overhears Young-man and Chul-soo also talking about the rumor (and planning on investing it), after which Hyun-jae spots them carrying a big cardboard box into the gym locker room. He relates this news to Eun-gyul, who senses the danger immediately. He takes off for the locker room, running across campus.<br />
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Meanwhile, Jae-hee also heads over to change out of her gym clothes, making sure to lock the door on her way in. In the corner, Young-man and Chul-soo sit watching her from inside the box. Eun-gyul arrives at the locker room and fumbles with the key for a minute, before finally managing to get the door open.<br />
<br />
He dives in and grabs Jae-hee just as Young-man and Chul-soo are distracted for a second and pulls her out of sight. Realizing she's gone, the sunbaes come out of their hiding spot and leave, frustrated. Hiding around the corner, Eun-gyul and Jae-hee wait in silence until they're gone.<br />
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Once they're alone, Puppy pulls back and quietly tells Jae-hee about the rumor. He turns to leave, but Jae-hee grabs his wrist to stop him. He turns back and she apologizes again, telling him she really is sorry and never meant to hurt him.<br />
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It seems he finally cracks, because they head outside and end up on the soccer field. He asks her whether she remembers the place, and she nods--it was one of the first places she went after she got to Genie. Eun-gyul admits that that night was the first time he'd realized he had feelings for her.<br />
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<br />
He kicks the ball into the goal, and then remembers--"Back then, you said you'd grant me a wish. I haven't told you my wish yet. Can I tell you now? Or is it too late?" Jae-hee hesitantly asks him what his wish is.<br />
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Eun-gyul tells her: "Can't you give me a chance too? I know how you feel about Tae-joon, and I know that you're here because of Tae-joon... For you, he's probably the main lead, and I'm probably just an extra... But what I'm saying is, give me a fair chance."<br />
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Jae-hee starts to protest, but he cuts her off: "No, not right now... I was just dumped by the male Goo Jae-hee. But... just think about it again. If it's not me, then I'll really let it go."<br />
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Reporter Yang tails Tae-joon out of the gym that night, and explains that she has an interest in Jae-hee. This makes him stop, and she explains slyly that all of this can go away if he just does a private interview with her... without Director Jang. Hands tied, Tae-joon has no other choice and agrees.<br />
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Emotionally drained, Jae-hee arrives back at the dorm, and goes straight to bed, citing exhaustion as her excuse to Tae-joon and explaining that she's pretty much made up with Puppy. In bed, she thinks back to how Eun-gyul had asked her to spend the next day with him.<br />
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In the morning, the pair of them get ready for their respective "D-Days," with Tae-joon heading out for his interview, and Jae-hee on her way to hang out with Eun-gyul. She explains as much to him when he asks, and he warns her to be careful, knowing how Eun-gyul feels about her.<br />
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Jae-hee assures him she'll take care of things--she means to end things once and for all today. Tae-joon teases her to have fun on her date, ruffling her hair, and she brushes it off, telling him instead to do well at his interview.<br />
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Adorably, in a twist of fate, this morning it's Hyun-jae banging on the bathroom door instead of Eun-gyul, who's inside primping. Haha. He meets Jae-hee outside (teasing her that it's okay she's late since she's a girl) and they head out on their not-a-date, as Tae-joon sits down at a cafe for his interview with Reporter Yang.<br />
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Meanwhile, at the hospital, Seung-ri arrives to visit Han-na. She tries to blow him off, citing a bad mood, but he's not willing to budge. He tells her he knows that she hasn't been going to rehab, and tells her she shouldn't stop. She asks him to move out of the way, which he refuses, vowing that he'll stay by her side no matter what.<br />
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She calls him a stalker, and he replies: "It doesn't matter what you call it. Han-na-ssi, please accept my feelings. ...If only you'd let me, I'd like to get to know you better. I'd probably get to know you very well. Without skipping over a single fact, I want to know everything about you. However, if you won't allow it, I'll clearly move aside. But, I won't move for this. Please keep up your rehabilitation."<br />
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That's pretty solid as far as love confessions go, and Han-na asks him why he's being like this with her. Seung-ri unabashedly admits that it's because he likes her.<br />
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This makes her pause--long enough for Seung-ri to start acting out a gag (which involves him dropping his hat and ripping his pants to reveal smiley-face boxers). Eventually, Han-na cracks the tiniest of grins and he calls her out on it.<br />
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She denies ever smiling, but hands over her sweater for him to cover up the rip in his pants before wheeling herself away. This is enough encouragement for Seung-ri and he grins, thanking her loudly, over and over again, as she rolls away.<br />
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Out in the city, Eun-gyul and Jae-hee spend time wandering around through arcades and department stores. At one in particular, they look through some girls' accessories and Jae-hee picks up a hairpin that she likes. Eun-gyul buys it for her secretly. (What is this, <i>You're Beautiful</i>?)<br />
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They go to a restaurant to eat, and when Eun-gyul gets up for some water, Jae-hee pulls out her phone to text Tae-joon to ask whether his interview's going well. He doesn't text back, but that's because Reporter Yang is ripping into him at the cafe, trying to get every ounce of dirt she can. Tae-joon answers all her questions with gritted teeth.<br />
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After dinner, Puppy and Jae-hee stop to sit outside by the river, and Eun-gyul admits, "Actually, when I found out that you're a girl, I was happy. Because it meant I could like you. You don't know how happy I was, right? Now I could like you just like any other guy does. It was very hard to like you when I thought you were a boy. At first, I knew it wouldn't work out... but it did. When I found out you're a girl, I thought I could never forgive you... but I did. I like it when you smile. I really like it when you smile."<br />
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He wraps his jacket around her shoulders and adds, smiling, "I think there's something wrong with me. This isn't the kind of person I am." He tells her to wait while he goes to get them something warm to drink.<br />
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Tae-joon's Interview from Hell finally ends and he stands up to leave. Reporter Yang asks him a parting question: "Why are you doing all this for Jae-hee?" Tae-joon replies that it's because he doesn't want Jae-hee to be bothered because of him--it's better for him to be bothered instead.<br />
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He leaves, and it's not until he gets outside that he receives the slew of text messages that Jae-hee sent him throughout the day. He heads back to school, exhausted, and texts Jae-hee.<br />
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Eun-gyul and Jae-hee are still at the river, sipping on their warm drinks, when Jae-hee finally receives a reply text from Tae-joon: "Goo Jae-hee, where are you? You're not back at school yet? Can't you come back soon? I miss you." Jae-hee literally starts at the last bit, and sits up suddenly.<br />
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Puppy's probably figured out what's going, but she says it out loud for him to hear: "Hey, Eun-gyul-ah, I have to go back to school now." He replies with the obvious: "Tae-joon's looking for you, huh?"<br />
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Jae-hee doesn't deny it, so Eun-gyul makes her a deal: "I have to go to the bathroom. If you're still here by the time I get back, I'll take that as a sign that you've accepted my feelings." He takes her hand for a moment before dropping it and walking away.<br />
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And indeed, by the time he gets back from the bathroom, Jae-hee's nowhere to be found. Puppy sits down on the bench forlornly, and then hears his name from behind. Jae-hee didn't leave.<br />
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We cut to her running into the schoolyard to find Tae-joon, as, back at the river, Eun-gyul thinks about what she'd said before she left. She hadn't meant to wait for Eun-gyul to tell him she accepted his feelings--rather, she'd waited to turn him down in person.<br />
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He'd accepted it cavalierly, and patting her on the head, had sent her off. He smiles sadly to himself as he thinks about it, but soon the his expression falls, and he stares out at the river alone. Aw, Puppy... Why does my heart hurt so much for this kid?!<br />
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Back at school, Jae-hee spots Tae-joon sitting on a bench outside. He looks up at the sound of her footsteps and stands. She stops a few few away: "You said you missed me, so I came running."<br />
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Tae-joon walks up and pulls her into a hug, getting the answer he needed.<br />
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<b>Thoughts</b><br />
As a penultimate episode, this was nothing special. I mean, there was tons of cute, sure, but the pace was as languid as it's always been and there was no sense of urgency (other than people starting to find out about Jae-hee being a girl). It was kind of almost too languid, considering that the next episode marks the finale and we still have so many things to resolve for it. Even so, the episode itself wasn't bad. I actually liked it very much.<br />
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Why did I like it? Well, a lot of things got resolved. We got some of the answers that we've been thwarted from getting for weeks, which was a relief, to be honest. It was like holding your breath for a minute under water and then finally coming up for air.<br />
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Jae-hee <i>finally </i>came out and told TJ she's a girl (which, I suspect, is how the rumor about there being a girl at the school started... I mean, they were sitting outside, for Pete's sake!), she <i>finally </i>gave Eun-gyul the honest answer he deserved, and someone in a position of power <i>finally </i>found out about Jae-hee.<br />
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Overall, this was a good character episode, which is something this show never capitalized on, and which I wish it had. Eun-gyul took the mature route of dealing with his anger--an anger which was completely founded and understandable--rather than being petty about it and turning on Jae-hee, which was kind of a given. We were never led to believe Eun-gyul was a bad guy, so it stands to reason he would react like this.<br />
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I know I'm not the only one who's made this parallel, but his character really reminds me of Choi Han-gyul from <i>Coffee Prince. </i>His character trajectory was very much the same, and <b>Lee Hyun-woo</b> consistently pulled off the way his character reasoned through the situation.<br />
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Any guy (or girl) dealing with a similar problem would react the way he did--would consider themselves insane, try to find a way out (in Eun-gyul's case by dating Da-hae), and then finally just give in. Then come to find out all that internal angst you dealt with for so long--all that torture you put yourself through--all of it was for naught... that's gotta smart, and it was believable for him to be angry at Jae-hee. However, it was also believable how they made up.<br />
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On a different note, this was also a good episode for Tae-joon. Not just because he seems to be an awesome boyfriend, but because he took the highroad in protecting Jae-hee from Reporter Yang. It's nothing earth-shattering, nor is it any "grand gesture," but it was a sweet notion nonetheless.<br />
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One thing that's been bothering me since last week, however, is the way the writer seems to undercut monumental moments in Jae-hee and Tae-joon's relationship. There was all this build-up and all this tension involved in Tae-joon admitting his feelings, and then again with Jae-hee admitting that she's a girl--and then we get two small scenes depicting those plot points finally being resolved.<br />
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We literally spent <i>episodes </i>going through this back and forth hedging with Tae-joon agonizing over his feelings and Jae-hee agonizing over the truth... It was almost disappointing when everything finally came out because the scenes were so... calm. In and of themselves, as isolated scenes, they were incredibly cute and appropriate. I just think they didn't mesh well with the build-up and the context.<br />
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On the upside, when he's not trying to be Mr. Serious Actor, <b>Minho </b>really does make the cutest facial expressions!<br />
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Either way, we've finally made it to the last week. Can't wait til the next episode! Happy Finale Day, everyone!<br />
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adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-85984510056747630122012-10-02T22:36:00.001-04:002013-06-24T23:08:08.050-04:00To the Beautiful You: Episode 14 Recap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Secrets are uncovered, relationships are mended, and more hearts are broken. Just another day at Genie High School. This episode was better than the last, and while predictable in almost every respect, I still found myself giggling like a schoolgirl, which is <i>never </i>a bad thing, in my book. Tae-joon put it best when he said, "I know she's a girl, but it's getting harder and harder to treat her like a boy." My sentiments exactly!<br />
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Watch TTBY Episode 14 on <a href="http://www.dramafever.com/drama/4136/14/To_the_Beautiful_You/?ap=1/?utm_source=hasoffers&utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=Adverseffects&utm_campaign=affiliate&offer_id=12&aff_id=234">DramaFever</a>.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b>Episode 14 Recap</b><br />
We catch up with our leads as Tae-joon takes a hard line and starts to head back to the dorms instead of the hospital to see his dad. Jae-hee protests, trying to get him to change his mind, but he wants nothing at all to do with the man whom he believes caused his mother's death.<br />
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He tells her to leave him alone, but Jae-hee argues that she can't just leave him alone when she can clearly see how much all of this is hurting him. As our typical hard-headed Kdrama leading lady, she isn't about to let Tae-joon off the hook quite so quickly. She makes a beeline back to call a taxi, leaving him no other choice.<br />
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They arrive at the hospital soon after, and Jae-hee leaves Tae-joon to walk in alone, making up some excuse about going to buy his father a gift. He slowly walks into Dad's room and finds him wandering around, looking for something--the remote to lift the back portion of the bed.<br />
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He asks Tae-joon why he bothered to come--he's not that sick. Tae-joon walks around to the other side of the bed, where he knows the remote is, finds it, and raises up the bed for Dad. He turns on the humidifier as well, and Dad makes the tentative observation that he must be so well-versed in hospital room organization since he spent so much time taking care of his mother, and that he must have suffered doing it alone.<br />
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He goes on to add that he knows he has no excuse for his behavior then, and understands why Tae-joon is angry with him. Even so, for him...<br />
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Tae-joon cuts him off coldly, telling him that no matter the circumstances, he doesn't think he'll ever be able to forgive Dad. He adds that it's a good thing Dad's sickness isn't a big deal. When Dad agrees and says they can talk later, he cuts him off, "I won't be coming back to the hospital again."<br />
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Back at school, Tae-joon and Jae-hee slowly make their way back to the dorms. As they walk, Tae-joon takes her hand, asking her to stay like that, just for a moment: "If I don't at least hold onto someone's hand like this for a while, I feel like I'm going to lose my way forever."<br />
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The next morning, Seung-ri gets discharged from the hospital, and comes out to the roof to bid goodbye to Han-na, attempting to make her smile with a slew of bad jokes. At Genie, Jae-hee marks one of Tae-joon's bedposts with a marker that says, "2m 31cm" denoting Tae-joon's new record goal for the upcoming competition.<br />
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During track team/athletic club practice that afternoon, Seung-ri (back in tip top form) is out for blood, wanting to get back at all the guys for not visiting him at the hospital. He orders them to do insane numbers of sit-ups.<br />
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Jae-hee has some issues keeping up with all the boys, so Tae-joon offers her his hand, helping her do the sit-ups. Accidentally, he pulls too hard, and she comes flying toward him. They land on the mat, her kneeling over him taken off-guard, while the rest of the guys turn to stare. <span style="background-color: white;">Seung-ri singles out Jae-hee for having so much overflowing energy and makes them do even more sit-ups.</span><br />
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Jae-hee frets over the incident back at the dorm after practice. She touches her cheeks, flushing as she thinks about landing on Tae-joon back in the gym. She wonders whether Tae-joon may like her a little, but blows that off as impossible since, in her mind, he still thinks she's a boy.<br />
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Then, a thought occurs to her--does Tae-joon like men, too? Hilariously, Tae-joon's in the room with her and overhears her mumbling to herself.<br />
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Even so, Jae-hee wants to test out her theory. She comes across a half-naked man in the magazine she's flipping through, and takes it over to Tae-joon to find out his opinion on the picture. Only, the picture slips out of the magazine and falls to floor, leaving Tae-joon staring at a picture of a pretty <i>female </i>model.<br />
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He tells Jae-hee the picture is pretty, and points out the model's eyes and nose, so she asks him if he were asked out on a date by the model whether he'd say yes. He replies that it's a given--he'd be totally grateful for the chance--and Jae-hee freaks out--wondering if he really does like men. Tae-joon looks at her like she's crazy, so Jae-hee turns the magazine around, realizing the flub. Even so, she's relieved that he's not gay.<br />
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She goes to his training session with him that evening so that she can record his jumps on her phone. Hyun-jae goes first, and though his jumps are much improved, he continues to hit the crossbar every time because he keeps jumping prematurely.<br />
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Tae-joon walks up to help him replace the bar for the next jump, advising him to sing a song in his head rather than counting, which will help him more with his timing. Hyun-jae scoffs, asking him what song he sings, and they both have a little chuckle at the answer: <i>A Frog Boy</i>. It's a short, but sweet moment to show how far they've come.<br />
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Tae-joon's up next to jump. His good performances from the week before are nowhere to be found, and Tae-joon hits the crossbar every single attempt he makes. Coach Baek wonders what his deal is--is he dating someone? Tae-joon BLATANTLY looks at Jae-hee as he shakes his head no.<br />
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After practice, they sit on the steps outside to study the video footage of his jumps. Jae-hee suggests that his continued failure may be as a result of his concern for his father being in the hospital, but Tae-joon cuts her off, mentioning again that he doesn't want to talk about it.<br />
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Eun-gyul texts Jae-hee's phone while Tae-joon is watching one of the videos to ask her if she'll come watch his nationals game with him. Tae-joon reads over the text, wondering out loud if they're going together. Jae-hee denies it quickly, explaining that she felt bad for making him hurt his leg and promised to watch the game with him.<br />
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She tells Tae-joon she'll cancel if he has something else to do, but he grumpily blows it off, and tells her she's making too big a deal out of it. Doc Jang walks by behind them, and stops to watch when he notices them on the steps, grinning a little at the sight. Aw, you're such a romantic and I totally love that.<br />
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Director Jang visits Tae-joon's dad at the hospital. He's busy being his usual workaholic self, even as she visits with him, but she manages to pose a question that makes him stop: "How long are you going to keep the truth from Tae-joon about his mother?" Ooh, interesting. Dad's keeping a lie? Dad tells her to just leave things as they are.<br />
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At the dorms, Jae-hee gets ready to leave to watch the game with Eun-gyul. She asks Tae-joon one last time if he really won't go with her, and he nods stubbornly. She mumbles that it'd be so nice if he came, which makes him pause, and he starts to say, "Fine I'll co--" but she cuts him off and tells him it's okay, she'll just go alone.<br />
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Tae-joon's face adorably falls into a frown. Jae-hee starts to walk out, then doubles back after a second, and he lights up, expecting her to try and drag him out again, but she plucks her cell phone out of his hands and walks out without another word, leaving him grumbling. Haha. Why so cute?<br />
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At the soccer field, Jae-hee and Eun-gyul sit in the bleachers alone to watch the game on his phone. She teases him that when she'd agreed to watch the game with him, she'd figured they'd be attending the actual match. He bashfully tells her he wasn't able to get any tickets.<br />
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Jae-hee apologizes to him for the umpteenth time, and Eun-gyul blows it off as nothing again: "You're my best friend. I thought I wasn't being greedy about it--that as long as I can stay by your side, I'd be happy with just that. And honestly, I can't get much greedier than that anyway... But the thing is, I'm getting greedier all the time. That doesn't mean I want you to feel burdened by it, though."<br />
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Jae-hee looks at him apologetically and starts to say, "Eun-gyul..." But he cuts her off, saying he understands without her telling him out loud. He wonders why they had to both be guys... Jae-hee apologizes again, this time for everything. She tells him that, down the road, even if she ends up disappointing him, she hopes that he won't hate her too much.<br />
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The next day, Tae-joon continues to fail miserably in practice and Coach Baek finally tells him to stop. He wants Tae-joon to get some rest, and (conveniently) orders Jae-hee to accompany him and take evidential photos of him taking the day off. On the other hand, he tells Hyun-jae to keep practicing, lol.<br />
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Of course, that doesn't stop Tae-joon from taking his training to the dorm room, and he does push-ups when they get back. In an effort to stop him, Jae-hee plops down on his back. Just to show off a bit, he does a couple more push-ups with her on his back, before finally collapsing under her weight.<br />
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Later, Jae-hee looks through a notebook with Tae-joon's jumping records written in it. Correlating them with the day his father was sent to the hospital, she realizes his dip in performance was a direct result of his father's collapse.<br />
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Which... this is a great discovery, but leaves me wondering why <i>she </i>would write down the date of his father's hospital admittance... Then again, she is TAE-JOON'S BIGGESTFANINTHEWHOLEWORLD, so I guess it's not much of a surprise.<br />
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A little while later, she asks Tae-joon to go out with her. Being the typical guy that he is, he refuses at first, until she mentions that she wants to take him to a place where one of her past loves went to school. He glares at her, griping, "Just how many loves have you had, exactly?" Jae-hee grins: "One hundred."<br />
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They wander around the city, doing various cute couple things like playing video games, and buying couple rings, all while Tae-joon takes pictures with his camera. In particular, when they enter a flower shop, he stops to eye a vase full of tiny red flowers.<br />
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They finally arrive at the school, and Tae-joon realizes it's his own--the one he attended for elementary. They walk around, going through the classrooms and such. When they return outside, Tae-joon stops for a second, recalling a memory of when his father had come personally to pick him up from school. Times were still good then, and he remembers hugging and laughing with Dad, who'd been happy.<br />
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They head back to school that night, and decide to take Sang-chu for a walk together. As they wander around, Jae-hee talks about her childhood and her old neighborhood. Tae-joon mentions that it'd be nice if he could see it someday.<br />
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Eventually, he broaches the subject of her having come all the way over to Korea for him--has she ever regretted it? She assures him she hasn't, because she's content seeing him jump again. Tae-joon admits that it feels weird sometimes--that his jumping has the ability to give her so much strength.<br />
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She agrees, explaining that it's weird for her to stand beside and talk to someone whom she thought was so far away. Getting a serious look on his face, Tae-joon asks her if he started jumping properly again whether she'd up and leave. Jae-hee replies with an evasive "probably," and then changes the subject by saying she's cold.<br />
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Tae-joon offers her his jacket, and wraps it around her shoulders. This puts them in close proximity to one another, and Tae-joon finds himself swooping in for a kiss. They hold it for a long moment, Jae-hee wide-eyed and frozen. Eventually, she gently pushes him away.<br />
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To be honest, when I saw the preview for this episode, I figured the kiss was going to be a fake-out, and watched the entire montage of their date thinking it was just part of someone's imagination, lol.<br />
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Tae-joon breaks out of his daze and looks around awkwardly, trying to come up with an explanation but utterly at a loss for words. Jae-hee gives him an out, asking him whether the chocolate he ate earlier had alcohol in it. He replies in the affirmative (even hiccuping like a drunk person to prove the point) and they both pretend to be none the wiser.<br />
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It's only after Jae-hee walks off, back to the dorms, that Tae-joon kneels down next to Sang-chu admitting to the dog, "I know she's a girl, and I know she'll leave me if she finds out I know the truth, but it's getting harder and harder to treat her like a boy."<br />
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Jae-hee heads over to her shrink in all boy-related matters--Dr. Jang. She explains to him what happened, him arguing that the situation is nothing crazy--he does it with women he doesn't know on the subway all the time LOL--which is when we find out they're NOT talk about what we think they are. Jae-hee has only told him she accidentally "brushed hands with" Tae-joon.<br />
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Even so, she tells him she was really shocked, and he poses an important question, "What if Tae-joon knew the truth? What would you do?" She replies that she'd probably have to leave the school, right? He wonders why she's asking him that now, when she never bothered to do so before she entered the school.<br />
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Jae-hee answers her own question, figuring she <i>would </i>have to leave if Tae-joon ever found out the truth. Even so, she admits, it's becoming harder and harder to pretend to be a boy around him. There are times she finds herself wanting to be a girl to him.<br />
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Doc gently explains that that's not something she can hide just because she wants to. She looks up at him: "Huh?" He changes the subject quickly, warning Jae-hee that it only takes a second of the unexpected to get caught.<br />
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He adds that when she'd first come to Genie, he'd looked the other way only because she'd seemed to have a sense of desperation about her. He'd wanted to see how she'd go about solving things. Doc promises not to intervene in any way, but tells her to think about it carefully and decide on her own what she wants to do.<br />
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Jae-hee decides she can't leave just yet. There's still something she has to do--help Tae-joon reconcile with his father. She sets about doing just that, asking Tae-joon the next morning to have dinner with her in the evening. Tae-joon asks her if she has something to talk to him about, but she keeps mum, telling him just to be ready.<br />
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Out by the soccer field, Hyun-jae and Eun-gyul watch the team toss around the ball for practice. Hyun-jae asks Puppy how his relationship woes are going, having noticed he's been dating someone lately, and Eun-gyul admits that he really doesn't know.<br />
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"It's a guy, isn't it?" Eun-gyul replies that it is, and Hyun-jae pauses thoughtfully for a long moment: "Is it me?" Eun-gyul smacks him over the head (Hyun-jae: "Dude! It's only because I'm worried about you!"), and then refuses to come clean about the person it really is. He does admit, however, "I think I like him a lot."<br />
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Meanwhile, Jae-hee heads over to the hospital to ask Tae-joon's father for a favor. Uh-oh... I don't like where this is going. Back at the dorm, Tae-joon prepares for dinner (dressed up all nice, haha). As he waits for her, he looks at the mark on his bedpost for his new record, telling himself that it's just one centimeter--he can do that much. Then, wondering what this dinner date is all about, he muses that it might be that she finally wants to come clean to him about her being a girl. Oh, you only wish.<br />
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Jae-hee runs into Eun-gyul on her way back into school. He asks her what's up when he sees her glum expression, and she admits that she's done something Tae-joon's going to yell at her about. Eun-gyul assures her that as long as whatever it is helps Tae-joon in the end, all will be forgiven. Jae-hee thanks him for the pep talk.<br />
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After she leaves, Puppy, our resident social media whore, pulls out his cell phone to take a selca with the caption: "Rather than me smiling, I'd rather see you smile." He does the Puppy face so well it just kills me every time I see it!<br />
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Jae-hee and Tae-joon head out for dinner, and it's not until they're at the restaurant that she drops the bomb. She expresses again her wish that he reconcile with his father. Tae-joon stands up to leave... just as Dad walks in. He tells Dad that he'll be going, but Dad orders him to sit, explaining that he has something to say.<br />
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Jae-hee tries to excuse herself, but Tae-joon stops her, telling her to stay. Dad lets her off the hook, telling her to leave, and she walks out, much to Mr. Grumpypants's chagrin. Even after she's gone, Tae-joon refuses to hear Dad out, and stands up to leave again. "About your mother's death--you don't know everything." This makes him stop in his tracks.<br />
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We catch up with Tae-joon after dinner as he walks along a bridge, thinking about what Dad had revealed. Apparently, Mom had known that she was very ill, but had kept it a secret from Dad and Tae-joon. She was in the last stage of liver cancer and had refused a transplant because she hadn't wanted to become a burden to Tae-joon, who'd had the Junior World Championships right around the corner at the time.<br />
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To Tae-joon, Dad admitted that he'd thought it better for Tae-joon to blame him, instead of his mother. Dad had apologized and explained that he'd kept that information from Tae-joon in an attempt to help him come to terms with Mom's death.<br />
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Tae-joon stops beside the banks of the river and cries as he thinks about the conversation he's just had. Meanwhile, back at Genie, Jae-hee remembers back to the conversation she'd had with Dad at the hospital. She implored him to tell Tae-joon the truth:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"He still need someone to lean on. Even though he pretends to be strong... and pretends not to be hurting, he's still just a regular kid. If it was me, my heart would probably be bruised black and blue. He suffered the death of his mother, and now if he hates his father too, because of it... it'll be too heartbreaking for him. If you truly care for Tae-joon... it's my hope that you won't hide anything from him." </blockquote>
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Tae-joon wanders back into the dorm a little while later. Jae-hee comes to meet him at the door. He's still crying, so she pulls him into a hug and they cry together.<br />
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Fully healed (that was fast!), Eun-gyul is back out on the field, where his coach tells him a national scout is coming back to take a look at him. Meanwhile, Tae-joon and Hyun-jae ramp up their own practices in preparation for the upcoming comp.<br />
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Tae-joon sends his father the pictures he'd taken at his elementary school, with an email that reads, "For the first time in a long while, I visited the school I went to when I was little. Back then, your shoulders looked bigger to me than the school gym. But I now know that it's not like that. So... don't try to carry the weight of the world by yourself, Dad."<br />
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Dad smiles while reading the email. At last, Tae-joon manages to jump his record without hitting the crossbar, and Jae-hee smiles to see it. She asks him how things are going with Dad as they sit in the cafe for a bite to eat, and he tells her they're starting to work through things. He thanks her for her help.<br />
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Eun-gyul happens upon them acting all chummy, and frowns, wondering why <i>he </i>can't be that natural around Jae-hee. He figures he should think of her as a person as opposed to as a guy, per se, and tries to convince himself of that idea.<br />
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Back in the dorms, Tae-joon finds a vase of the flowers he'd seen at the flower shop the other day sitting on his desk. Jae-hee admits she was the one to buy them for him, and he corners her on that: "Can I interpret this any way I like?"<br />
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She avoids the question and moves past him to start cleaning up. She muses that they need to straighten up the room, but Tae-joon softly berates her, telling her to stop pretending there's nothing between them. He pulls her to her feet and takes her by shoulders. Looking her in the eyes, he says: "Don't you know? I'm trying to tell you I like you right now."<br />
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He rushes out after this, telling her he's got practice, but stops outside to catch his breath, leaning heavily against the dorm door with a smile on his face. Inside, Jae-hee vows to tell him the truth about her being a girl as soon as possible.<br />
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As usual, Hyun-jae's taken over the bathroom just when Eun-gyul needs it most. He runs over to Jae-hee and Tae-joon's room to use theirs. He doesn't think anything of it when he doesn't find her in the room, and opens the door into the bathroom without warning.<br />
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Inside, he sees Jae-hee taking off her shirt and spots her chest bindings. She quickly pulls up her shirt, but he knows already: "Don't tell me... Goo Jae-hee, are you <i>a girl</i>?"<br />
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<b>Thoughts</b><br />
I liked this episode a lot. Not just because of the obvious reasons, but because the tone felt perfect. Jae-hee's meddling in the affairs of Tae-joon and his father still annoyed me, but their reconciliation was worth dealing with the transparent plot maneuverings.<br />
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I've said this before, but my biggest gripe with <i>Hana Kimi </i>was, and continues to be in this incarnation, the lack of development of the Mizuki character. In BY especially, Jae-hee has never seemed like an independent person to me. She's only what she is--in relation to Tae-joon. She said it best in the last episode: "Everyone's doing their best in training... I feel so useless." That's because you are, darling.<br />
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You have no purpose other than fixing Broken Tae-joon--whether that means getting him to jump again, or facilitating a reconciliation between him and his father. She literally has no personal motivations at all. Daniel was literally the only character in the show who ever mentioned this aspect--when he was berating her for giving up her dreams of going to an Ivy League school just so she could help Tae-joon.<br />
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In that respect, she vaguely reminds me of Oh Ha-ni from <i>Playful Kiss</i>. Ha-ni was never her own entity--she always just seemed to be an extension of Seung-jo, even after they got married. She did things based on Seung-jo's decisions, and Jae-hee's the same way. There's nothing more frustrating than a (supposedly) competent female lead who has no goals of her own. That begs the question--just what the hell was Jae-hee doing for the 18 years <i>before </i>she met Tae-joon (you know, other than being a shut-in)?<br />
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It's hard, I know, but let's forget Jae-hee for a second. If the last episode was about deciphering Hyun-jae, then this one was definitely about deciphering Tae-joon. He got the easy end of things--he already knows that Jae-hee's a girl, so the agony that Puppy's had to suffer is something he doesn't understand. And because he got the Easy Pass, so to speak, Tae-joon's been more able to concentrate on his feelings for her, rather than trying to sort them out and wonder about his own sanity.<br />
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That's why it was so much fun to watch him unraveling for the last few episodes as Eun-gyul finally stepped up to the plate. It was never that Tae-joon needed someone to convince him he liked Jae-hee, because I think he pretty much figured that out a while back. It was more that he needed someone to motivate him to act. John was that person at first, but he conceded quickly and dropped out of the picture.<br />
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Eun-gyul proved a more permanent threat, and someone who might very well be able to sway Jae-hee's heart. Because of this, Tae-joon realized that complacency wasn't going to work anymore--he needed to do something. And props to the boy for trying--because he really did... it was just that stupid stuff kept coming up and preventing him from being honest with her. Dad was the final "nail in the coffin" for him--it sealed the deal on his feelings for Jae-hee until he couldn't hide them anymore, and we finally got that sweet little confession at the end--matter-of-fact, succinct, and completely surprising--just the way I like them.<br />
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Heading into the final week, I've realized a few things--first, that this incarnation of the <i>Hana Kimi </i>story line is, without a doubt, the best written and the best-developed. It's the grown-up cousin of the Japanese versions, of which I've now watched both. I know. That's really saying something, isn't it? But it really is. The writer took a cast of characters that were only written as comic relief, and turned them into real people.<br />
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I griped a lot about character development and story development (especially when Han-na became the focus a couple episodes back), but the writer took a story that lacked in... well, <i>story </i>and gave it depth. It's not the cleanest or most efficient execution, but I'd say he's done pretty well with the material he was given. Here's to hoping he doesn't drop the ball in the final week!<br />
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adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-37079007324448252602012-09-27T04:08:00.001-04:002013-06-24T23:06:38.954-04:00To the Beautiful You: Episode 13 Recap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Lots of underhandedness and teenage angst all around in this episode, but we get most of the answers we were looking for, which is a relief since we're getting down to the wire here. The question of will they or won't they? faces more obstacles, but I'd say we're making pretty good headway toward a satisfying conclusion. No big complaints from me for today! Isn't that a first?<br />
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Watch TTBY Episode 13 on <a href="http://www.dramafever.com/drama/4136/13/To_the_Beautiful_You/?ap=1/?utm_source=hasoffers&utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=Adverseffects&utm_campaign=affiliate&offer_id=12&aff_id=234">DramaFever</a>.<br />
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<b>Episode 13 Recap</b><br />
So, we're in the kitchen with our leads and Tae-joon has just made his sounds-like-a-confession-but-really-isn't, telling Jae-hee not to concern herself with Eun-gyul so long as she's with him, and that he's not going to let her leave for America. Jae-hee stares up at him with her usual deer-in-the-headlights expression, and before anyone can say anything else that might be nice to hear, Eun-gyul throws open the kitchen door.<br />
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The air is tense, and he asks Jae-hee why she wasn't answering him. He explains about their phones, so they switch back. Tae-joon pushes his way out of the kitchen without another word. Soon after, Doc Jang is dropping our not-really-lovebirds back off at school (what, in the middle of the night?), and notices Tae-joon being chivalrous and taking Jae-hee's bag for her. He watches after them with a thoughtful expression on his face.<br />
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When they get back to the dorms, Tae-joon sends Jae-hee into the shower first, telling her he has something to talk to her about when she gets out. When she asks him what, he tells her it's a secret discussion. In the bathroom, Jae-hee worries that maybe Tae-joon has figured out that's a girl, and outside, Tae-joon vows to himself that he's no longer going to hide his feelings.<br />
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Doc heads back to the clinic, but can't seem to get the thought of Tae-joon carrying Jae-hee's bag out of his mind. He thinks to himself that it definitely looked as if Tae-joon had caught onto something. Making a split-second decision, he texts Jae-hee, telling her to be more careful around Tae-joon.<br />
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Unfortunately for him, the message gets sent to Tae-joon instead, who texts him back telling him about the mistake. For a guy who spends most of his time telling Jae-hee to be careful, he sure made a pretty big flub...<br />
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Anyway, he rushes over to the dorms to meet with Tae-joon, who straight-up admits that he knows that Doc is aware of Jae-hee being a girl. Doc asks him how long he's know, and why he's kept it a secret. Tae-joon looks away, unable to answer, so Doc assumes, incredulously, that it's because Tae-joon actually thinks of Jae-hee as a girl.<br />
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Tae-joon nods, and explains that since he knows the whole truth, he plans on telling Jae-hee as much tonight.There's no reason to hide it anymore. But being the general Debbie Downer that he is, Doc asks Tae-joon to think about how Jae-hee would feel if she knew Tae-joon knows her secret. It's likely that she'd just pack up and leave.<br />
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This is enough of an argument to convince him, and Tae-joon heads back to his dorm with a heavy heart. When Jae-hee asks him what he wanted to talk about, he blows it off as nothing, remembering Doc's words. Even so, she's not about to let it go, and asks him what he meant when he'd said for her "not to concern herself with Eun-gyul while she's with him."<br />
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Tae-joon answers nonchalantly that he meant what he said--that she shouldn't think about anyone else when she's having a conversation with him. Then what about going to America? He answer that he only said that because he figured it would be difficult to change roommates if she suddenly left. Jae-hee frowns and tries to walk around him to bed, but he grabs her arm, telling her, "So, don't think about anything else. Just stay by my side."<br />
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She answers noncommittally that she will and then tries to move past him again, but he keeps a firm grip on her arm, repeating his statement, "I said, just stay by my side." Jae-hee looks up at him and nods, replying more sincerely that she promises she will.<br />
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The next morning, as Tae-joon leaves for a run, he finds a drink on his desk with a note from Jae-hee just as she did the first day she came to school. Just to show us how far we've come, instead of being irritated like he was back then, Tae-joon smiles up at her sleeping form. Later, Jae-hee wakes up and finds a similar note on her cheek from Tae-joon, telling her to eat a proper breakfast and teasing her for drooling. Why so cute, OTP?<br />
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Tae-joon's practices continue to go smoothly, and he's praised by Coach Baek. Jae-hee swings by to give Tae-joon some encouragement, and he points to her with a big grin. Baek turns his attention to Hyun-jae to berate him again when he fails to clear yet another jump, and asks Tae-joon to jump again.<br />
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He clears the second jump as well, and Baek tells Hyun-jae that it's good to be aggressive, but if he focuses too much on that, he'll end up meeting the bar instead of clearing it every single time. He tells him follow Tae-joon's form--tease the bar, don't attack it aggressively.<br />
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He goes on to add that the national comp is just days away, and that Olympic trial qualifications hang on that alone. Hyun-jae mulls over this in the locker room after training, thinking back to his meeting with the corporate sponsor.<br />
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Jae-hee heads back to class after this, where Jong-min is doing tarot card readings. His first client is Eun-gyul, who picks three cards and gets outstanding results: he'll be rich, find love, and be successful in his competition. Puppy manages to convince Jong-min to read for Jae-hee too, but her results are a bit more ominous: she gets the "death" card, and Jong-min tells her to be careful.<br />
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Outside after class, Jae-hee sits on a bench, thinking about the tarot result. Eun-gyul finds her, riding some kind of new fangled bike that looks like a Stairmaster from the gym. He tells her not to fret over the tarot thing, and promises that if he makes a goal during the national comp (as a result of his own talent, he says, not because of the tarot reading), his celebratory sign afterwards will be the character "goo" (the number "9") for Goo Jae-hee. Jae-hee smiles awkwardly, lol.<br />
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On her way out of the administration building, she notices Hyun-jae looking worried at the top of the staircase. She almost turns back to ask him what's up, but then thinks better of it and keeps going. She runs into Tae-joon soon after, and he stops to talk to her just before a flowerpot comes crashing to the ground right behind him. (What, are we doing <i>Dream High </i>references, too, now?)<br />
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Jae-hee runs up to him to ask him if he's okay. He's fine, but she remembers Hyun-jae from before, suggesting he may harbor a grudge against Tae-joon. He blows it off as a coincidence, telling her she should lay off the sleuthing. Even so, Jae-hee recalls the tarot card thing, and tells him to be careful for now.<br />
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Yep, if you were wondering, that is indeed the flowerpot behind Tae-joon's head in the screencap below. Who knew that flower pots that pretty could be so lethal? Pfft.<br />
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At the hospital, Han-na is being interviewed by a few reporters. She assures everyone that she's planning on making a swift recovery so that she can start training once again. When asked about Tae-joon, she comes clean, admitting that she broke up with him (much to the chagrin of Director Jang, lol) because she no longer finds him interesting (and calls him quite a few names in the process, including "petty," "stuffy," and "old-fashioned," just to name a few). After the interview, Han-na sits dejectedly in her hospital room and reads over Jae-hee's note again.<br />
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Hyun-jae seems to be on a downward spiral in this episode, because Jae-hee finds him outside the dorms trying to cut the brake wire on Tae-joon's bike. When she confronts him about it, he doesn't bother to answer, and runs off. Eun-gyul surprises him with a birthday gift when he returns to their dorm, making Hyun-jae feel even worse about what he's doing. He stays up late that night, internally debating himself.
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The next morning, Tae-joon gets ready to head to class on his bike, but Jae-hee tries to stop him, telling him to walk to class with her instead. He refuses, telling her it's a part of his training. (Which... this bike! What the hell is up with this bike? We haven't seen it for 13 episodes, but you're going to try to tell me he suddenly feels like riding this bike more than walking with his crush? Gah, Show. Your senselessness never fails to surprise me, even now.)<br />
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Jae-hee knows the bike might be rigged and, INSTEAD OF TELLING TAE-JOON THE TRUTH, she grabs it out of his hands and rides off on it herself, instead (as Hyun-jae watches on, almost running forward to stop her, but being unable to). WHAT? Oh, Goo Jae-hee, you're <i>much </i>dumber than I originally thought. What the hell. Naturally, the bike <i>has </i>been tampered with, and Jae-hee goes sailing all over campus, unable to stop because the brakes aren't working.
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Eventually, Eun-gyul sees her and goes chasing after her on his Stairmaster and manages to stop her before she goes crashing into a tree or into the street or worse. They land on the ground and the bike (not the bike!) sails out onto the road in pieces.<br />
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Jae-hee scrambles up, unscathed, but Eun-gyul isn't fairing so well himself. He's messed up his ankle, and it looks pretty bad. She helps him to the clinic, where Doc wraps him up, telling him to get some rest. He won't be able to compete in the national tournament. Oh no, Puppy!<br />
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They head outside, and Jae-hee apologizes to Eun-gyul for getting him hurt like this. Puppy puts up a brave front, telling her that his recovery rate is faster than normal people and he'll be healed in no time, maybe even early enough to play in the nationals match after all. Even so, after she leaves, he cringes, assuring himself that it's fine that he's hurt, as long as Jae-hee's okay. Aw.<br />
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It seems Jae-hee's had enough of skirting around the issue, so she goes right up to Hyun-jae after this to confront him about everything he's been doing--she scolds him and tells him that because of everything he's done, Eun-gyul ended up being the one to get hurt. Hyun-jae gets pissed off and grabs her by the collar, getting ready to pound her, which is when Eun-gyul hobbles up, having heard everything.<br />
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He drags Hyun-jae outside for a word, and confronts him about what's going on and giving him an opportunity to explain himself. By this time, it's apparent Hyun-jae realizes the extent to which he's hurt people (Eun-gyul especially, an innocent bystander), but can't bring himself to admit what the problem is. He tells Eun-gyul he's sorry, but Puppy takes the hard line, explaining that he's disappointed in Hyun-jae for being so pathetic.<br />
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In class, Tae-joon runs in, asking after Jae-hee and trying to make sure she's okay. She says she's fine, but that Eun-gyul got hurt and might not be able to play at nationals. Tae-joon wonders what happens with the bike since it hadn't been that long since he'd gotten it serviced.<br />
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At the hospital, Seung-ri tries for the one-millionth time to make nice with Han-na. He approaches her while she's sitting outside, and tells he read the news article about her being injured. He recalls having been hurt a few years ago himself in a car accident--the doctors had told him he'd never be able to play sports again. But he tells her that it's all nonsense, and he's the proof of it. He'd recovered from his injury and managed to get back out on the field, even winning a track medal.<br />
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He gets up to show her the scar from the accident and starts to pull down his pants. Han-na shrieks at this, smacking him on the back, and Seung-ri stands up, saving her from the sight. Haha. She refuses his offer of friendship when he sticks out his hand for her to shake, promising to make her laugh every time they see each other, but concedes that she'll just think of him as a cheap magazine to make use of while being bored at the hospital. It's better than nothing, and they both smile as she wheels herself away. Aw.<br />
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Pretty soon, the news about Han-na and Tae-joon's "breakup" makes its rounds at Genie, and Tae-joon's labeled a boring old man after Han-na's comments in her interview. This scene is kind of pointless other than to give us one of the numerous Psy references in Dramaland this week (see: <i>Panda and Hedgehog</i> Episode 12).<br />
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That day in class, Hyun-jae is conspicuously missing, and Tae-joon looks at his empty desk with a concerned expression on his face. He starts putting the pieces together about the flowerpot and the bike, coupled with the missing Hyun-jae.<br />
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Outside, Tae-joon's dad is on campus speaking to Coach Baek about the newest scandal in his son's life. Baek assures Dad that Tae-joon nearly back up to par and that he should have faith and watch him continue to improve. Jae-hee walks by as they're talking, so Baek pulls her aside to introduce her to Dad as Tae-joon's roommate. Dad hilariously looks at her from head to toe with this wtf expression on this face. Haha. Dad asks to speak to her for a moment.<br />
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Now alone, Dad complains to Jae-hee that Tae-joon doesn't ever talk to him about anything, so he has no idea what he's thinking, getting himself involved in petty scandals like this. (Wait, are we just supposed to assume that Tae-joon deciding not to go to Canada went over fine with this guy?)
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Jae-hee asks Dad to have a little faith in Tae-joon, but Dad protests that it's not Tae-joon he doesn't trust--it's himself. He made a mistake, and wonders if all this is his fault. When Jae-hee looks at him blankly, he explains that Tae-joon blames him for his mother's death, and admits it's not altogether untrue.<br />
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Meanwhile, Puppy hobbles around campus, thinking back to when he'd broken the news about his ankle to his coach. It hadn't gone over very well, with Coach blaming him for getting injured at such a crucial time. Eventually, Eun-gyul makes it back to the dorms, but finds the cutest little girl waiting outside by herself.<br />
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When he approaches, she tells him that she's looking for Tae-joon oppa. So, assuming she's Tae-joon's little sister, Eun-gyul phones up Tae-joon, who doesn't answer. So, he tells the little girl to come back later, and she'll be able to see Tae-joon then. She staunchly refuses, lol.<br />
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Left with no other choice, Eun-gyul heads in to Jae-hee and Tae-joon's dorm, wheeling his training bag in on a trolley/cart. He explains to Jae-hee that Tae-joon's little sister is here to see him. When she asks him where she is, he gives out an ironic scoff and bends down to unzip his bag. The little girl pops out, explaining to Jae-hee that she's not Tae-joon's little sister--she's his girlfriend, haha. I like this little girl's moxy.<br />
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Before she can tell them who her real oppa is, there's a knock on the door. They quickly zip the little girl back up, and Coach Baek bursts into the room, also looking for Tae-joon. He tells Jae-hee and Eun-gyul to have Tae-joon call him so they can work on resolving Hyun-jae's problem.<br />
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In fact, Hyun-jae's brooding in the gym as he looks down at a letter of resignation from the competition. Coach Baek runs into Tae-joon in the locker room, and asks whether he knows anything about what's going on with Hyun-jae lately.<br />
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As an afterthought, he mentions that Dad stopped by earlier, worried about him, citing the Canada issue as one of the reasons why he's worried. Tae-joon's face takes on the usual dark expression at the mention of his father, and he quickly excuses himself.<br />
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Eun-gyul and Jae-hee take the little girl (whose name is Hyun-ji) to his dorm after they find out that she's not Tea-joon's dongsaeng. Actually, she's Hyun-jae's little sister, and a big fan of Tae-joon. Hyun-jae comes in a few minutes later, and we find out that he's lied and told her he's Tae-joon's roommate and best friend.<br />
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Eun-gyul and Jae-hee carry on the lie for him, and he looks up at them gratefully. He takes Hyun-ji home, and we find out they're not in the best of financial conditions, unlike the rest of the characters we've seen thus far. He refuses to come inside, even as Hyun-ji pouts and complains that he always does this.<br />
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He gets up to leave and Hyun-ji asks him when he'll win the gold medal. He'd told her that once he won it, their family could all live together again. Hyun-jae tells her to win just a bit longer, and Hyun-ji breaks out into a smile, "Then mom won't have to go out and work either?" Hyun-jae nods happily and asks her whether she'll be alright alone until Mom gets home. Hyun-ji assures him she will as long as she keeps the TV on. He promises to win a medal soon, and then leaves.<br />
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When he gets back to his dorm that evening, he thanks Eun-gyul for treating his little sister so well. Eun-gyul replies that his sister is cute. He asks again why Hyun-jae did what he did, and this time Hyun-jae explains himself:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Because I only had reason to beat him. Because I only <i>wanted </i>to beat him. In this world, I used to think there wasn't anything that couldn't be achieved through hard work. And if I ever came across a wall I couldn't jump over, I'd feel accomplished after managing to jump it. So maybe that's how I ended up doing high jump... since the end goal is being able to jump over myself. But... as I looked at Kang Tae-joon, I realized for the first time that this wasn't going to work. My idea of 'hard work'--it's shabby when compared to his natural talent. He was a wall I couldn't jump over--that's what Kang Tae-joon became to me. Well... in the end, I managed to hit rock bottom like this."</blockquote>
Eun-gyul tells him there's no such thing as shabby hardwork--he doesn't know if Hyun-jae will out-jump Tae-joon or not, but hard work is always rewarded in the end. Crying a bit, Hyun-jae looks at Eun-gyul, "I committed a wrong against you that can't just be blown off. I won't try to just gloss over what I did. I'll take full responsibility for it."<br />
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Eun-gyul tells him that of course, he'll have to. His life as Puppy's slave until his leg is healed begins now! Hyun-jae, with tears in his eyes, looks at Eun-gyul a little pathetically, so Eun-gyul puts a hand on his shoulder, teasing him gruffly. Aw, the relationship between these two is pretty awesome.<br />
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Jae-hee drops by the gym while Tae-joon is practicing again. He asks her whether Hyun-jae was responsible for the bike, too, and she plays dumb, saying she doesn't know. Tae-joon marvels at the fact that, even knowing there was something wrong with the bike, she rode it anyway so that he wouldn't get hurt.<br />
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He hugs her from behind, thanking her for saving him from all the accidents, but tells her not to do it again--if she ever got hurt because of him, he wouldn't be able to stand it. She freezes, a little shocked, and he teases that he figured she'd be used to getting hugs, being from America and all.<br />
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That night, Hyun-jae calls Tae-joon out to have a talk. He explains that he was the reason for all the accidents and admits that, while he knows he should be responsible and quit the Athletic Club, he just can't bring himself to do it. Even so, he tells Tae-joon that if he wants him to drop out, he will.<br />
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Tae-joon plays dumb, pretending not to know what he's talking about, thus giving Hyun-jae a clean out. He tells Hyun-jae he doesn't know anything else, just that the competition is coming up soon and Hyun-jae is slacking in his training.<br />
<br />
Hyun-jae was the one who'd told Tae-joon not to be petty before, but Tae-joon's been considering doing just that more and more lately--he doesn't want to hear from anyone that he lost the competition because he didn't train enough. Hyun-jae realizes what he's trying to say, and smiles ironically.<br />
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Back in the dorm, Tae-joon gets a call from Dad (whose photo in his phone is of Darth Vader, natch), but he ignores it, refusing to answer. Jae-hee tentatively asks him why he doesn't go home more often, and Tae-joon responds by asking her whether she met with his father. She replies in the affirmative, and then expresses her wish that he reconcile with Dad.<br />
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Tae-joon tells her to stop, explaining that it's not something he wants to talk about. Jae-hee keeps at it, arguing that after hearing his dad's side of the story, she thinks there might be some kind of misunderstanding between them...<br />
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By now, Tae-joon's angry, and he threatens to leave if she doesn't stop. He storms out, ending up at Sang-chu's house. He admits to Sang-chu that he knows it's not Jae-hee's fault. As he sits there, he thinks back to his mother's death and the events preceding it.<br />
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When he was younger, Dad had always been more of an absentee husband and father to him and his mom. Even after Mom had gotten sick, Dad had pretended nothing was wrong, coming home drunk from a business party while Mom was rushed to the ER for the first time.<br />
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Mom had continued to get sicker and sicker, so Tae-joon had asked Dad to have her admitted to the hospital. Dad had brushed it off as a minor cold and had agreed to a check-up, but had been so caught up in his work, that nothing ever came of his promises.<br />
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Mom had passed away, and Tae-joon had been left alone with his father. On the day of his mother's funeral, Tae-joon had confronted Dad about the whole thinking, asking him why he'd lied, saying that Mom's disease wasn't serious and that she'd be alright.<br />
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Dad had simply apologized, not being able to come up with any explanations for himself, but Tae-joon had lashed out, scolding Dad and saying that if Dad had simply found some time to care and pay a little attention, Mom wouldn't have died. He'd accused Dad for being the one to kill Mom.<br />
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Back in the present, Tae-joon's phone continues to ring back in the dorm. Eventually, Jae-hee answers it. She rushes outside to find Tae-joon, and runs into him coming back to the dorm. She tells him he needs to go quickly--his father's collapsed.<br />
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<b>Thoughts</b><br />
I think it's safe to say that that stupid bike wins for <i>worst plot device ever</i>. Am I wrong? What the hell was up with that? Really, writer-nim, you couldn't come up with <i>anything </i>more clever? No? There were so many things wrong with that scene--first, why didn't Jae-hee just come clean and save everyone some trouble?<br />
<br />
Second, it's a bike! If the breaks aren't working, you <i>plant your feet </i>and STOP. It's not that hard. Believe me, I've tried it. Or even, ride it into the grass. ANYTHING! Third, really? Puppy sprained his ankle from <i>that</i>? Not from jumping out of a moving car, not from tripping on the soccer field, but from saving Jae-hee from a <i>bicycle </i>accident? Oye vey.<br />
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Nonetheless, this was a great episode for Hyun-jae (even if some of the things that happened made no sense at all... but I think we've long decided that logic is not this show's strong suit), whom we've been waiting <i>forever</i> to get some back story on.<br />
<br />
He so reminded me of Malfoy from Harry Potter 6, when he was being all emo the whole movie--his good guy complex warring with his evil streak. Right? RIGHT? Either way, we got the answers we wanted, plus who didn't love his adorable baby sister, right? Plus, we <i>also </i>finally got the truth of Tae-joon's background, and found that it's a lot murkier than we originally might have thought it to be. Either way, I was very happy with today.<br />
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One thing I did have a problem with was Jae-hee talking to Tae-joon's dad. It was the one thing I hated in the J-remake of <i>Hana Kimi</i> when I watched it, and while it's executed a bit better here, I still don't like it. There's no reason why Dad would admit any of that to Jae-hee, roommate or not. The scene always felt out of place to me, and still does here. There were other ways of getting Tae-joon/Sano to reconcile with his father that didn't require Jae-hee/Mizuki being the instigator.<br />
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Overall, I'm not too irritated by the beginning of the episode and TJ changing his mind about confessing to Jae-hee. At this point, we're just a few episodes from the finale, so it's only a matter of time before it comes out. Narratively, today was a great episode, so I'm content for now.<br />
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Plus, how cute are these guys, huh?!<br />
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adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570486928856107555.post-62434335778274231682012-09-25T23:16:00.000-04:002012-09-25T23:16:24.911-04:00Kuroki Meisa and Akanishi Jin welcome a baby girl into the world<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If anyone was following the saga that has been <b>Akanishi Jin</b>'s life for the last year, you'll know that it's been a busy time for the former KAT-TUN playboy. Last year, it was announced that not only had the bad boy finally been tamed, but that he was going to become a daddy too! And not just anyone's daddy--the father of beautiful <b>Kuroki Meisa</b>'s baby.<br />
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Not that it was much of a surprise to anyone--Jin was known for his... shall we say, <i>philandering</i> ways. The only question left to ask was, who'd be the girl who finally got him in trouble? Meisa, the pretty nun from <i>1 Pound no Fukuin </i>seemed to land that role. Whatever the case, the pair tried to be low-key about the whole matter (pfft), even denying Meisa's pregnancy initially, but ended up tying the knot while they waited expectantly for their bun to bake.<i> </i><br />
<br />
Anyway, the (lucky?) couple gave birth to a healthy baby girl on the 23rd, and had this to say about their new bundle of joy:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"After many days and months, which have seemed to fly by, she's come into our life. We hope to work together, and supporting one another to bring up our precious, precious new love, this new life. We thank God for this amazing miracle, and hope to live together in a home that's always full of laughter." </blockquote>
Spoken like a true... shotgun marriage couple?<br />
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Who can imagine Jin as a daddy? I don't know about you, but that's kind of a scary thought to me. Well, I guess one thing is for sure--that is going to be one beautiful baby. Congrats to the family! Here's to hoping we've seen the end of irresponsible Jin!<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">via <a href="http://jpopasia.com/">JpopAsia</a></span></i>adverseffectshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18209623901967049118noreply@blogger.com0